British animals extinct within historic times ; with some account of British wild white cattle

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EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS

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PART I.

EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

BRITISH ANIMALS

EXTINCT WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES

WITH SOME ACCOUNT

BRITISH WILD WHITE CATTLE

BY

JAMES EDMUND HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

AUTHOR OF "A HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS;" "THE ORNITHOLOGY
OF SHAKESPEARE," ETC. ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. WOLF, C. WHYMPER>
R. W. SHERWIN, AND OTHERS

BOSTON

J. R. OSGOOD AND CO.

1880

And in yon wither' d bracken's lair,
Slumbered the wolf and shaggy bear ;
Once on that lone and trackless sod
High chiefs and mail-clad warriors trod,
And where the roe her bed has made,
Their last bright arms the vanquish' d laid.

The days of old have passed away
Like leaves iipon the torrent grey,
And all their dreams of joy and woe,
As in yon eddy melts the snow ;
And soon as far and dim behind,
We too shall vanish on the wind.

Lays of the Deer Forest.

ffL

PREFACE.

FEW who have studied the literature of British
Zoology can have failed to remark the gap which
exists between Owen's " British Fossil Mammals and
Birds," and Bell's " British Quadrupeds ;" the former
dealing chiefly with prehistoric remains, the latter
with species which are still existing.

Between these two admirable works a connecting
link, as it were, seems wanting in the shape of a
history of such animals as have become extinct in
Britain within historic times, and to supply this is the
aim of the present writer.

Of the materials collected, during many years of
research, some portion has been already utilized in a
Lecture delivered by the author before the " Hert-
fordshire Natural History Society," in October, 1879,
and in several articles in the Popular Science Eeview
and the natural history columns of The Field.

The exigencies of time and space, however, neces-

* Popular Science Eeview, 1878, pp. 53, 141, 251, 396; and The Field,
^879 : Sept. 27 ; Oct. 4, 1 1 ; Nov. i, 8, 29 ; Dec. 20 and 27.

vi PREFACE.

sitated a much briefer treatment of the subject in the
journals referred to than is here attempted, and to
these essays, now presented to the reader in a con-
solidated form, considerable additions have been
made.

That the subject admits of still further amplifica-
tion the author is well aware ; but^" ars long a vita
brevis est" and the materials at present collected
have already assumed such dimensions, that it has
been deemed preferable to offer them to the reader
in their present form, rather than postpone publica-
tion indefinitely, in the hope of some day realizing an
ideal state of perfection.

Should the present volume pave the way for
future research on the part of others, the Author
will be amongst the first to welcome the result of
their labours. He has already to acknowledge his
indebtedness to Dr. J. A. Smith and Messrs. Edward
Alston, J. A. Harvie Brown, and J. P. Hoare, whose
taste in the same line of research has prompted
them to favour him with several interesting commu-
nications, which have been embodied in the following
pages ; while to Dr. Smith he is especially obliged
for the use of four woodcuts which were prepared
to illustrate papers of his own in the "Proceed-
ings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland."

PREFACE. vii

In regard to that portion of the present work
which treats of the ancient breed of wild white
cattle, it may be thought, by some, a little presump-
tuous on the part of the writer to deal with a subject
on which an entire volume has been so recently and
so ably written by the late Mr. Storer. But it
should be stated that almost all the materials for
this portion of the book were not only collected long
before Mr. Storer's work was published, but were on
the eve of being incorporated in an important essay
by Mr. Edward Alston, which was nearly ready for
the press when Mr. Storer's volume appeared.

ft would be ungenerous, however, on the part of
the writer were he to withhold an acknowledgment
of his indebtedness to Mr. Storer's work for many
useful additions to his own (each, in fact, containing
something which the other had not), and in particular
for several details of the former extent of ancient
forests, which have been embodied in the Intro-
duction.

CONTENTS.

PAET I.

FAGX

INTRODUCTION 3

THE BEAK l j

THE BEAVER 33

* . .
THE EEIXDEER 6 !

THE WILD BOAR 79

THE WOLF u5

CONCLUSION 206

PAET II.
WILD WHITE CATTLE 213

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

THE BEAR n

Fossil Cranium of Bear, Dumfriesshire 13

Eecent Cranium of Bear. Under Surface ...15

Bear Hunt. From an old print 18

Anglo-Saxon Gleemen's Bear Dance 20

Bear-baiting. From a carved seat of the I4th century 25

THE BEAVER 33

Cranium from the English Fens. Upper Surface . 44

The same. Under Surface 45

Lower Jaw of Beaver from the English Fens . . 51
A Beaver at work 60

THE EEINDEER 61

Fragments of Eeindeer's Horn, from Caithness . .71
Antler of Keindeer, from Orkney 75

THE WILD BOAR 77

Wild Boar Hunting. From a MS. of the 9th century 79
Spearing a Boar. From a MS. of the I4th century 85

Skull of Wild Boar 86

Tracking a Wild Boar. Sixteenth century . . .103
Group of Wild Boars, from a carved horn . , . .109
The Boar's 'Head, Eastcheap 1 1 1

THE WOLF 115

Skull of Wolf 117

Cranium of Wolf. Upper Surface 120

Cranium of Wolf. Under Surface 121

Teeth of Wolf. Natural Size 123

Wolf hunt. Sixteenth century " 151

Irish Wolf-hound 188

Ancient Hunting Horn 205

TheKelay 209

WILD WHITE CATTLE 213

Skull of Wild Ox, Fifeshire 216

Skull of Wild Ox, Lancashire 217

Coin of Cunobelin, with Wild Ox on reverse , . .219

* Wild Bull of Chartley 231

Wild Bull of ChiUingham 233

EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE interest which attaches to the history of
extinct British animals can only be equalled by the
regret which must be felt, by all true naturalists, at
their disappearance beyond recall from our fauna.

It is a curious reflection at the present day, as we
pass over some of the wilder parts of the country,
that at one time these same moors and woods and
glens, which we now traverse so securely, were
infested to such an extent with ferocious animals,
that a journey of any length was, on this account,
attended with considerable danger. Packs of
wolves, which usually issued forth at night to
ravage the herdsman's flocks, were ever ready to
attack the solitary herdsman, or unwary traveller on
foot, who might venture to pass within reach of their
hiding-places. In the oak woods and amongst the
reed-beds which fringed the meres, wild-boars
lurked while munching their store of acorns, or
wallowing, as is their wont, in lacustrine mire, while
they searched for the palatable roots of aquatic

4 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

plants. Many a traveller then had cause to rue the-
sudden and -unexpected rush of some grand old
patriarch of the " sownder," who, with gnashing
tusks, charged out upon the invader of his domain,,
occasionally unhorsing him, and not unfrequently
inflicting severe injuries upon his steed. In the
wilder recesses of the forest, and amongst the caves
and boulders of the mountain side, the bear, too,
had his stronghold, and though exterminated at a
much earlier period, long co- existed with the animals
we have named ; while in a few favoured localities
in the west and north, the harmless, inoffensive
beaver built its dam, and dived in timid haste at the
approach of an intruder.

At the present day it is difficult to realize such a
state of things, unless we consider at the same time
the aspect and condition of the country in which
these animals lived, and the remarkable physical
changes which have since taken place. Nothing
we have now left can give us any idea of the
state of things then ; not the moors of North
Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, and Lancashire, the
wild wastes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and
Northumberland, nor even the extensive deer-forests
and moors of the Scottish Highlands ; for the pathless
woods which then covered a great part of these dis-
tricts are all gone, and so also are the thick forests
which, outside of but connected with them, skirted
these higher grounds. The advance of man and the
progress of cultivation has destroyed most of these
wild woods, but it was not so in late Saxon and in

INTRODUCTION. 5

early Norman times. Even in the less hilly districts
more than half the country was one vast forest, and
in the north at least these forests flanked the moun-
tain ranges, extending their wild influence, and at
the same time rendering them more inaccessible and
wilder still.

Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, great
forests came up almost to the gates of London. In
a curious tract entitled "Descriptio nobilissimce civi-
tatis Londoniw" written by Fitz-Stephen, a monk of
Canterbury, in 1174, it is stated that there were
open meadows of pasture lands on the north of the
City, and that beyond these was a great forest, in
whose woody coverts lurked the stag, the hind, the
wild-boar, and the bull.

Two-thirds, or nearly, of the county of Stafford
was, even in relatively modern times, either moorland
or woodland. The northern part, going nearly up to
Buxton, was moorland ; the central and eastern part
forest. Harwood, in his edition of Erdeswick's
" Survey of Staffordshire," quoting Sir Simon Degge,
says : " The moorlands are the more northerly
mountainous part of the country lying betwixt Dove
and Trent ; the woodlands are the more southerly
level part of the country. Between the aforesaid
rivers, including Needwood Forest, with all its
parks, are also the parks of Wichnor, Chartley, Hore-
cross, Bagots, Loxley, and Paynesley, which anciently
were all but as one wood, that gave it the name
of woodlands." Leland, about 1536, though he
speaks of the woods being then much reduced, con-

B 2

6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

firms this, and even carries this country of woods
farther south. He says : " Of ancient tyme all the
quarters of the country about Lichefeild were forrest
and wild ground."* That would bring the Stafford-
shire woodlands close up to the purlieus of Charn-
wood Forest, in Leicestershire. Nor is this all ;
for about three miles north-west of Lichfield com-
mences Cannock Chase, with its parks as numerous
and extensive as those of Needwood, from which it
was separated only by the River Trent. This chase,
even at a comparatively recent period, was " said to
contain 36,000 acres," while " in Queen Elizabeth's
time Needwood Forest was twenty-four miles in
circumference. " t

The mountainous and moorland district to the
north of Staffordshire, as many names of places still
indicate, was also heavily wooded at one time, and
contains, near its riorthern extremity, the singular
defile of rocks and caverns locally called Ludchurch,
said to have been the scene of Friar Tuck's ministra-
tions to Robin Hood and his merry men.]: This
part of Staffordshire, bounded by the river Dove on
its eastern side, and on the west passing close to
Congleton in Cheshire, and another ancient forest
known as Maxwell forest, runs like a wedge near
Buxton into that wild country where the great

* Leland, " Itinerary," ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 1 14.

t Erdeswick, " Survey of Staffordshire," ed. Harwood, pp. 192,
279. These were both celebrated for their oaks and hollies : those in
Needwood alone, in 1658, when it had been much reduced in extent
and denuded of its timber, being valued at 30,710?.

I Storer, " Wild Cattle of Great Britain," p. 65.

INTRODUCTION. ^

forest of Macclesfield, the Peak forest, and the high
Derbyshire moors uniting together constitute " that
mountainous and large featured district which in
ancient times had been well timbered and formed
part of the great midland forest of England.* And
a part only ; for we have seen that this midland
forest district, of which the Peak was the centre,
included towards the south the greater part of
Staffordshire, while towards the east an imaginary
line only separated it from the mighty forest of
Sherwood. From Nottingham to Manchester was
one continuous forest, and far into Yorkshire the
great moor extended to join other and more northern
forests there. From the Peak northwards, through-
out West Yorkshire and East Lancashire, the forests,
moors, and mosses connected with this mountain
range were immense.t Some idea of their extent
may be gathered from the remarks of the learned Dr.
Whitaker, who, describing Whalley, in Lancashire, in
late Saxon and early Norman times, says : — " If, ex-
cluding the forest of Bowland, we take the parish of
Whalley at a square of 1 6 1 miles, from this sum at
least 70 miles, or 27,657 acres, must be deducted for
the four forests, or chaces, of Blackburnshire, which
belonged to no township or manor, but were at that
time mere derelicts, and therefore claimed, as
heretofore unappropriated, by the first Norman lords.
There will therefore remain for the different manors
and townships 36,000 acres or thereabouts, of which
3,520, or not quite a tenth part, was in a state of
* Robertson, "Buxton and the Peak," p. 41. f Storer, p. 66.

8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

cultivation; while the vast residuum stretched far
and wide, like an ocean of waste interspersed with
a few inhabited islands."* Let us try to realize the
state of things, when out of 63,657 acres of land,
over 60,000 were either forests or waste, and nearly
half of that amount unclaimed and unappropriated,
while close at hand towards the north was the still
larger and wilder forest of Bowland, so admirably
described by Whitaker, and towards the south that
of Rosendale with an amazing range of moors beyond
it. But this statement only shows how the great
central range was covered and fringed with wastes
and forests on its western side. On the eastern side
in the same neighbourhood, the country of Craven,
it was just the same even so lately as the time of
Henry VIII. Leland says : — " The forest, from a
mile beneth Gnaresborough to very nigh Bolton
yn Craven is about twenty miles in length ; and in
bredeth it is in sum places an viii miles ;" the whole
intermediate district between Bolton and Bowland
forest, or between it and Whalley, being about as wild
as anything can be. In the north of England the
same state of things prevailed, often on an even
larger scale ; one forest alone in Cumberland, and
that not in its wildest part, being described in " The
Chartulary of Lanercost Priory " as extending at
the time of the Norman Conquest from Carlisle to
Penrith, a distance of eighteen miles, and as "a
goodly forest, full of woods, red-deer and fallow, wild
swine, and all manner of wild beasts."

* Whitaker, "History of Whalley," p. 171.

INTR OD UCTION. 9

As for Scotland, we can scarcely over-estimate the
wildness that everywhere prevailed, when in the
•south a vast forest filled the intervening space
between Chillingham and Hamilton, a distance, as
the crow flies, of about eighty miles, including within
it Ettrick and numerous other forests ;* and further
north the great Caledonian wood, known even at
Rome, covered the greater part of both the Low-
lands and Highlands, its recesses affording shelter at
one time to bears, wolves, wild-boars, and wild white
cattle.

Enough, perhaps, has been here advanced to show
that the whole of this immense range of mountains
and hills, with its vast forests and wastes, was as
^favourable a tract of country for the preservation of
aboriginal wild animals as could well be conceived ;
but for further details of the situation and former
extent of English forests the reader may be referred
to Whitaker's " History of Manchester" (Bk. I.
P- 337)5 Gilpin's "Forest Scenery" (vol. ii.), to
which Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his edition
(1834) has made some valuable additions; Scrope's
"Art of Deer Stalking" (srd ed. 1847); and Mr.
Evelyn Shirley's "English Deer Parks" (1867).

To describe the various modes of hunting in these
early times would be beside the purpose of the present
work, which is, rather, to collect together evidence,
geological and historical, of the former existence here
of certain wild animals which have become extinct
within historic times. On the subject of hunting,
* Storer, p. 68.

io EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

then, we must be brief, and will here be content with
quoting the following remarks of Mr. Earle in his
edition of the Saxon Chronicle. " Now-a-days," he
says, "men hunt for exercise and sport, but then
they hunted for food, or for the luxury of fresh meat.
Now the flight of the beast is the condition of a good
hunt, but in those days it entailed disappointment.
They had neither the means of giving chase or of
killing them at a distance, so they used stratagem to
bring the game within the reach of their missiles.
A labyrinth of alleys was penned out at a convenient
part of the wood, and here the archers lay under
covert. The hunt began by sending men round to
break and beat the wood, and drive the game with
dogs and horns into the ambuscade. The pen is the
haia so frequently occurring amongst the silvce of
Domesday. Horns were used, not, as with us, to call
the dogs, or, as in France, to signal the stray sports-
man; but to scare the game. In fact it was the battue,
which is now, under altered circumstances, dis-
countenanced by the authorities of the chase, but
which, in early times, was the only way for man to
cope with the beasts of the field." Such, at least,
was the course usually adopted. Particular animals,
however, were hunted in a particular manner, and
to some of these modes we shall have occasion to
refer later.

II

THE BEAR

Ursus arctos.

To treat first of the earliest historic species which
has died out, no doubt can exist that the Brown
Bear inhabited Britain in times of which history
takes cognisance, the few written records which have
come down to us of its former existence here being
supplemented by the best of all evidence, the dis-
covery of its remains. These have been found in the
most recent formations throughout England, which
can scarcely be regarded as fossil, and, if not abso-

1 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

lately identical with those of the Bear which still
exists in many parts of the European continent at all
events indicate only a variety.*

In Britain, says Professor Boyd Dawkins, the Bear
survived those changes which exterminated the cha-
racteristic post-glacial mammalia, and is found in
the prehistoric deposits both in Great Britain and
Ireland, and is of considerable interest, because it is
the largest of the post-glacial carnivores which can be
brought into relation with our history. A nearly
perfect skull from the marl below the peat in Manea
Fen, Cambridgeshire, and now in the Woodwardian
Museum, Cambridge, has been described and figured
by Professor Owen, who has also described portions
of another skull from the same locality. In 1868
Dr. Hicks found remains of the Brown Bear in peat
at St. Bride's Bay ; and numerous bones and teeth
of this animal have been discovered at various times
in Kent's Cavern, Devonshire.

The exploration of the Victoria Cave, near Settle,
revealed the fact that the Brown Bear afforded food
to the Neolithic dwellers in the cave, who have left
the relics of their feasts and a few rude implements
at the lowest horizon ; the broken bones and jaws
of this animal lying mixed up with the remains of
the Bed-deer, Horse, and Celtic Shorthorn.t

Nor are we without direct testimony that the
Bear was killed by the hand of man during the
Roman occupation of Britain. In the collection of

* Owen, " British Fossil Mammals," p. 78.

f Boyd Dawkins, Pop. Sci. Review, 1861, p. 247.

THE BEAR. 13

bones from the " refuse heaps" round Colchester
made by Dr. Bree, the remains of this animal were
found along with those of the Badger, Wolf, Celtic
Shorthorn, and Goat. Professor Boyd Dawkins has
also met with it in a similar " refuse heap" at Rich-
mond, in Yorkshire, which is most probably of
Roman origin.

CUAXIUM OF BROWN BEAK, DUMFRIESSHIRE.

Dr. J. A. Smith has described and figured^ the
skull of a large Bear which was found with a rib of
the same animal in a semi-fossil condition at Shaws,
in Dumfriesshire, in peat moss lying on marl, among
the most recent of all our formations, associated
moreover with the Red-deer, Roe-buck, Urus, and
Reindeer ; the skull being that of a large adult
animal of great size and strength, f Strange to say,
these are the only remains of the Bear which have
yet been discovered in Scotland.

As regards Ireland, some doubt seems to exist in
the minds of palaeontologists whether any of the
ursine remains discovered there are referable to

* " Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland," vol. xiii. p. 360 (1879).
f For permission to copy the figure of this skull the author is
indebted to Dr. J. A. Smith and the Society above referred to.

14 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Ursus arctos* Dr. Leith Adams, writing on ' Recent
and Extinct Irish Mammals' ("Proc. Roy. Dublin
Soc.," 1878), has very fully described several skulls
and other portions of ursine skeletons exhumed in
Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, King's County,
Kildare, Waterford, and Limerick, and after com-
paring them with similar bones of Ursus spclceus,
U. fossilis, U. ferox, U. arctos, and U. maritimus,
has arrived at the following conclusion : —

" A study of the osteological characters of these
ursine remains which represent all the authenticated
instances of discoveries hitherto recorded from
Ireland, appears to me to furnish characters referable
only to one species, which, on the score of dimensions
and general features, is inseparable from the so-called
Ursus fossilis of Goldfuss,f and at all events from
the smaller Spelean Bear found in English and other
deposits, as distinguished from the larger congener
found also in England, but more plentifully on the
continent of Europe. Unless the skull from Kildare
represents the Ursus arctos (and that, I think, is
doubtful), J all the others seem to me to belong to

* See Dr. R. Ball on the Skulls of Bears found in Ireland, « Proc.
Roy. Irish Acad.," vol. iv. p. 416 (1850); Wilde, "Proc. Roy. Irish
Acad.," vol. vii. p. 192 (1862); Scott, 'Catalogue of Mammalian
Fossils discovered in Ireland,' "Jour. Geol. Soc. Dublin," vol. x. p. 144
(1864) ; Dr. Carte, "Jour. Geol. Soc. Dublin," vol. x. p. 114 (1864).

f The relationship between Ursus ferox and Ursus arctos is very
close, not only as regards fossil but also recent individuals, so much
so that by external appearance only they are indistinguishable.

J A fine cranium 13^ inches in length was found in cutting a new
channel for the river Boyne, in the barony of Carberry, co. Kildare ;
and is of peculiar interest from its resemblance to the Pyrenean
variety of Ursus arctos, to which it has been referred by Dr. Carte.

THE BEAR. 15

the Ursus fossilis, which, so far as osteological and
dental characters are concerned, would appear to
have been the progenitor of the recent Ursus ferox,
now repelled to Western North America. In this
latter view I am supported by the distinguished
palaeontologist, Mr. Busk, F.R.S., whose differentia-
tions, as regards several of the Irish crania, were

RECENT CRANIUM OP BEAR. UNDER SURFACE. (£ NAT. SIZE.)

made before I commenced to study them. It may
be said, therefore, that Ursus ferox, as in England,
belonged to the prehistoric fauna, and was a native
of the island in the days of the Reindeer, Mammoth,
Horse, and Wolf, with which its remains have been
found associated, as also with exuvia of the Red-

1 6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

deer, Fox, and Variable or Alpine Hare ; and
although not found along with the Irish Elk, it has
been generally met with in similar lacustrine beds.
It seems to me that, -as in the neighbouring island, if
the Brown Bear had ever been a native of Ireland, it
would, as in Scotland and England, have come down
to the historical period ; so that the fact of no notice
of its presence, and the very emphatic assertions or
silence of Bede, St. Donatus,* Giraldus Cambrensis,
and Pennant, seem to me to bear out the results of
recent disclosures. The probability is, therefore,
that, like its congeners, all, excepting the Hare and
Red-deer, became extinct in the island before man
commenced to make records of theferce of the country;
for it is a remarkable circumstance that in all the
remains of Irish extinct mammals, none present
the fragmentary characters afforded by the cavern
deposits of the sister island ; thus showing on the one
hand, that they had not been destroyed by man, nor
by the bone-crunching hyaena, but that they met
their deaths, for the most part, through natural
causes and accidents."

The Welsh Triads, some of which are supposed to
have been compiled in the ninth century, but most
of which are of a much later date,f say that " the
Kymry, a Celtic tribe, first inhabited Britain ; before
them were no men there, but only bears, wolves,
beavers, and oxen with high prominences."

* In Ireland, according to St. Donatus, who died in 840, the Bear
was not indigenous : " ursorwn rabies nulla est ibi,"

f See Stephens, " Literature of the Kymry," p. 427 (ed. 1876), and
Appendix.

THE BEAR. 17

Many places in Wales, says Pennant, still re-
tain the name of Penarth, or " the bear s head,"
another evidence of their former existence in our
country.*

Our illustrious countryman, John Ray, in his
" Synopsis Methodica Animalium" (a small octavo
volume, published in 1693), tells us (pp. 213, 214)
that his friend Mr. Edward Llwyd, in an old Welsh
MS. on British laws and customs, discovered cer-
tain statutes and regulations relating to hunting,
from which it appeared that the Bear was formerly
reckoned amongst the beasts of chase (E novem guce
venantur ferarum genenbus fria tantum lafrabilia t
csse, ursum, scandentia,\ et phasianum, and its
flesh was esteemed equally with that of the Hare
and the Wild Boar : " Summam sen prcecipuce cestima-
tionis ferinam esse, ursi, leporis et qpri."§

* "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 91 (ed. 1812).

t Latrabilia, " baitable animals." The term is thus explained by
Ray (op. cit.) : " Ursus fera latralilis [baitable] dicitur, quia cum
tardigradus sit, nee velociter currere possit, canea eum facile asse-
quuntur, contra quos deinde corpore in clunes erecto aliquandiu se
defendit ; canes autem initio timidi nee propius accedere aut eum
allatrant antequam aggrediantur et occidant." See also Stuart,
" Lays of the Deer Forest," vol. ii. p. 441.

J Scandentia, sc., " climbers," the marten and wild cat, perhaps also
the squirrel. The mention of the pheasant here is remarkable, and
we should be curious to discover the date of this MS., if still preserved,
and the Welsh equivalent, in Llwyd'a opinion, for " phasianum." We
know from another source (a MS. dated about 1177) that this bird
was to be found here in 1059, since it is included in a bilj of fare of
that date prescribed by Harold for the household of the canons at
Waltham Abbey. It would be interesting to know whether the Welsh
MS. referred to was an earlier document or otherwise.

§ In " a letter (dated Sept. 14, 1696) from the late Mr. Edward
Llwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to Dr. Tancred
Robinson, F.R.S., containing several observations in Natural History,

1 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Of the ancient British methods of hunting the
Bear, we are but imperfectly informed. We learn,
however, from rude descriptions and ruder figurings,
that he was watched to his couch, or was traced to
his winter retirement, when arrows, pikes, clubs,
javelins, and long knives, were used against him ; he
was also occasionally betrayed into a pitfall. In

BEA.B, HUNT. FROM AN OLD PRINT IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.

later times the Bear was trailed with boar-hounds,
and despatched by the spear or knife of the hunter,

made in his travels through Wales " ("Phil. Trans.," vol.xxvii.p.462),
the writer observes : —

" Sir William Williams hath several Welsh MSS. (tho' I think
no dictionary) that woxild be of use to me ; but his son tells me he's
resolv'd never to lend any. They are chiefly modern copies out of
Hengwrt Study in Meirionydhsliire, which I am promis'd free access
to ; and have this time taken a Catalogue of all the ancient MSS. it
contains. There are the works of Taliefyn, Aneuryn gwawdydh,
Myrdhyn ab Morvryn and Kygod'to Elaeth, who lived in the fifth and

THE BEAR. 19

as the animal rose to grapple with the dogs, or with
their master. Bear hunting must have been always
a dangerous sport, in this respect and if ever the
great Cave Bear was an object of the hunters' attack,
the boar-hunt of Calydon, as described by Ovid,
could alone have furnished a parallel.

That bears were to be found in Britain during the
eighth century may be inferred from the fact that
in the " Penitentiale" of Archbishop Egbert, drawn
up about A.D. 750, it is laid down (lib. iv.) that " if
any one shall hit a deer or other animal with an arrow,
and it escapes and is found dead three days afterwards,
and if a dog, a wolf, a fox, or a bear, or any other wild
beast hath begun to feed upon it, no Christian shall
touch it."*

In the time of Edward the Confessor, as we learn
from " Domesday/' the town of Norwich furnished
annually one Bear to the king, and six dogs for the
baiting of it.t

Baiting wild animals was a favourite pastime with

sixth centuries (but the small MS.containingthem all seemstohave been
copied about 500 years ago), as also of several others valuable in their
kind." In a subsequent letter to Dr. Robinson, dated Lhan Dyvodog,
Glamorganshire, Sept. 22, 1697, he says : — " I had no sooner received
your last but was forced to retire in a hurry to the mountainous parts
of this county, in order to copy out a large Welsh MS. which the
owner was not willing to spare above two or three days, and that in
his neighbourhood. It was written on vellum about 300 years since,
and contained a collection of most of the ancient writers mentioned by
Dr. Davies at the end of the Welsh dictionary. So I thought it
better trespassing on the gentleman's patience that lent it, than lose
such an opportunity as perhaps will not occur again in my travels.
This is the occasion of my long silence — the transcribing of that book
taking up two months of our time."

* Migne, " Patrologiaa Cursus Completus," torn. Ixxxix. p. 426.

t Gale, vol. i. p. 777 ; Blount, " Ancient Tenures," p. 315 (ed. 1815).

20

EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the Romans and their imitators, the Roman Britons.
And as amphitheatres were constructed of squared
stone, and in a magnificent style for these exhibitions
at Rome, so were others erected here in Britain in a
less pretentious style of architecture, and of the
humbler materials of clay, chalk, gravel, and turf.
Such are the great amphitheatres at Silchester and
Dorchester, once extending in several rows of seats,

ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN S BEAK DANCE. TENTH CENTURY.

and still including an arena of nearly two hundred
yards in circumference.*

In all probability the trained bears exhibited by
the Anglo-Saxon Gleemeii were native animals taken
young and tamed.

So far as history informs us, it would seem that
Scotland, and more particularly the great Cale-
donian forest, was the chief stronghold of our British
Bishop Leslie says that that great wood was

* "Itin. Cur.," pp. 155-170; "Phil. Trans." 1748, p. 603.

THE BEAR. 21

once " refertissimam" full of them.* Cainden, too,
writing of Perthshire, observes : " This Athole is
a country fruitful enough, having woody vallies,
where once the Caledonian forest (dreadful for its
dark intricate windings and for its dens of Bears, and
its huge wild thick-maned bulls) extended itself far
and near in these parts, "t

After the occupation of Britain by the Romans,
Caledonian Bears seem to have been perfectly well
known in Rome. We learn from Martial that they
were used for the purpose of tormenting male-
factors, of which we have an instance in the fate
of Laureolus : \

Nuda Caledonio sic pectora praebuit urso,
Non falsa pendens in cruce, Laureolus.

Which may be Englished :

Thus Laureolus, on no ideal cross suspended,
Presents his nude body to the Caledonian bear.

Camden, quoting Plutarch, assures us " that they
transported Bears from Britain to Borne, where they
held them in great admiration. "§ How these Bears
were captured, and in what way they were trans-
ported to the coast and shipped on board the Roman

* "De origine, moribns, &c., Scotorum," 1578.

f " Britannia," ed. Gibson, vol. ii. p. 293 ; ed. Phil. Holland, ii.
p. 40. See also " Old Statist. Ace. ScotL," vol. xii. p. 449 (1794).

J Martial, " De Spect.," vii. 3, 4.

§ Camden, ed. Holland, ii. p. 31. Gough, in his edition (vol. iii.
p. 367), says that neither he nor Pennant could discover the passage
referred to, nor have we been more successful. The passage from
Martial, however, is thus commented on in the Delphin edition: —
" Caledonia, regio Britannia, ubi sylvas densissimco undf scevi ttrsi
Romam mittelantur,"

C 2

22 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

galleys, must, we fear, for ever remain matters for
speculation, We do not even know the precise
period at which these very hazardous consignments
were made ; but it may be assumed to have been
probably about the same time that Wolf-dogs were
being exported to Rome, which we know was about
the latter end of the fourth century, A Roman
consul of that day, Symmachus by name, writing to
his brother Flavinus over here, thanks him for a
present he made him of some dogs which he calls
Canes Scotici, and which were shown at the Circen-
sian games, to the great astonishment of the people,
who could not believe it possible to bring them to
Rome otherwise than in iron cages. It was no doubt
in iron cages that the Bears were transported.

Some commentators have supposed that the dogs
here referred to were English mastiffs ; but it may
be remarked that for some time before Symmachus
lived, and for many centuries after, Ireland was well
known by the name of Scotia, and the appellation
" Canes Scotici," while inapplicable to English
mastiffs, would be appropriate to Irish wolf-hounds.
Moreover, the dogs upon which the highest value
was always set in former times were those which
were of use for the chase of wild animals, and we
know from various sources that Wolf-dogs were held
in such esteem as to be considered worthy the
acceptance of monarchs, and were frequently sent
abroad as presents to foreign potentates.*

* See an article by the writer, on the Irish Wolf-dog, in Baily's
Magazine for September, 1879.

THE BEAR. 23

As regards the former existence of Bears in the
Highlands, a shadow of their memory, says Stuart *
is preserved in their Gaelic name, Magh-Ghamhainn;^
and the traditions of some remote districts which
retain obscure allusions to a rough, dark, grisly
monster, the terror of the winter's tale, and the
origin of some obsolete names, in the depths of the
forest and the dens of the hill. { Hence Ruigh-na-
beistc, the monster's slope, Loch-na-beiste, the monster's
lake ; for beist in Gaelic signifies generally, not, as
might be inferred from its similarity to the English
word, a mere animal (which is beathach, or ainmhidh),
but something beyond an ordinary creature, a mon-
ster, a beast of prey. Thus, in the above instances,
r we believe it to have been derived from the myste-
rious and exaggerated recollection of the last solitary
Bear which lingered in the deep recesses of the forest,
the terror of the hunter and of the herdsman.

Thompson states that although he is not aware of
any written evidence tending to show that the
Brown Bear was ever indigenous to Ireland, a tradi-
tion exists of its having been so. It is associated
with the Wolf as a native animal in the stories handed
down through several generations to the present

* "Lays of the Deer Forest," ii. p. 215.

f Literally " the paw-calf," from mag, a paw, and ghamainn, a
yearling calf. The name is now often corrupted into matli-ghamainn
the calf of the plain, which has no meaning, for bears are not
characteristically inhabitants of plains ; but the implied allusion to
the size and colour of a calf, with the distinction of the paw, is
descriptive of the beast.

J Traditions of this kind will be found in the story of ' The Brown
Bear of the Green Glen,' related in Campbell's "Popular Tales of the
West Highlands," vol. i. pp. 164-170.

24 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

time.""" Sir William Wilde asserts that he discovered
an Irish name for the Bear in an old glossary in the
library of Trinity College, Dublin ; and it is remark-
able that the name to which he refers, " maghgham-
hainn" (corrupted into " math-ghamhainn," which,
as already explained, conveys a different signification),
is identical with the Gaelic name for the animal still
preserved in traditions of the Highlands.

When the Bear became extinct in Britain is un-
certain. Prof. Boyd Dawkins thinks it must have
been extirpated probably before the tenth century, t
The stoiy quoted by Pennant j from a history of the
Gordon family, § to the effect that in 1057 a Gordon,
in reward for his valour in killing a fierce Bear, was
directed by the king to carry three Bears' heads on
his banner, is altogether a fallacy. Reference to a
copy of the original Latin MS. from which the
translation quoted by Pennant was made (preserved
in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) shows that the
animal killed was a Boar, " immanem aprum.'' More-
over, the arms of the Gordons happen to be Boars',
not Bears' heads. The difference of one letter only
in the name might easily account for a mistake
which has been since blindly copied by many writers.
As our ancestors, says Jamieson, called the boar
bare, by a curious inversion the bear is universally
denominated by the vulgar a boar.

* " Nat. Hist. Ireland," vol. iv. p. 33.
f " Cave Hunting," p. 75.
J "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 91 (ed. 1812).

§ " The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious Family of
Gordon." By William Gordon, of Old Aberdeen. 2 vola., Edinb., 1726.

THE BEAR. 25

Col. Thornton, in his " Sporting Tour through the
Northern parts of England and the Highlands of
Scotland " (1804), states that on the island of Inch-
merin, which is the largest island in Loch Lomond,
being nearly two miles in circumference, beautifully
Avooded and well stocked with deer, Lord Graham
had turned out a few wild Bears. Whether this is a
misprint for Boars, we have no means of knowing, but
from the employment of the adjective "wild," this is
probable, or he may have been misled by the Scottish
pronunciation referred to by Jamieson.

When native Bears no longer existed, our ancestors
imported foreign ones for a purpose that does no
credit to the manners and customs of the times.

BEAK-BAITING. PROM A CARVED SEAT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY,
IN GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.

" Bear-baiting" in all its cruelty was a favourite
pastime with our forefathers.

Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II.,
tells us that in the forenoon of every holiday during
the winter season the young Londoners were amused
with Boars opposed to each other in battle, or with
Bulls and full-grown Bears baited by dogs. There
were several places in the vicinity of the metropolis
set apart for the baiting of beasts, and especially the

26 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

district of St. Saviour's parish in Southwark, called
Paris Garden, which contained two Bear-gardens,
said to have been the first that were made near
London. In these, according to Stow, were scaffolds
for the spectators to stand upon — an indulgence for
which they paid in the following manner : " Those
who go to Paris Garden, the Belle Sauvage, or
Theatre, to behold Bear-baiting, interludes, or fence
play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle
unless they first pay one pennie at the gate, another
at the entrie of the scaffold, and a third for quiet
standing."* The time usually chosen for the ex-
hibition of these national barbarisms, which were
sufficiently disgraceful without this additional re-
proach, was the after-part of the Sabbath Day. One
Sunday afternoon in January, 1583, the scaffold
being overcrowded with spectators, fell down during
the performance, and a great number of persons
were killed or maimed by the accident, which the
Puritans of the time failed not to attribute to a
Divine judgment.t

Erasmus, who visited England in the time of
Henry VIII. , says there were many herds of Bears
maintained in this country for the purpose of baiting.
When Queen Mary visited her sister the Princess
Elizabeth, during her confinement at Hatfield House,
a grand exhibition of Bear-baiting took place for

* See also Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes."

f See Field, "A Godly Exhortation by occasion of the late Judgment
of God shewed at Paris Garden. 13 January, 1583, upon divers Persons
whereof some were killed, and many hurt at a Bear-bating," &c.
I2mo, Lond. 1583.

THE BEAR. 27

their amusement, with which, it is said, "their
highnesses were right well content." Queen Eliza-
beth, on the 25th of May, 1559, soon after her
accession to the throne, gave a splendid dinner to
the French Ambassadors, who were afterwards en-
tertained with the baiting of Bulls and Bears, the
Queen herself remaining to witness the pastime until
six in the evening. The day following, the same
ambassadors went by water to Paris Garden, where
they saw some more Bear-baiting. Some years
afterwards, as we learn from Holinshed, Elizabeth
received the Danish Ambassador at Greenwich, and
entertained him with the sight of Bear-baiting,
"tempered with other merry disports/' Laneham,
referring to some Bear-baiting which took place
before the Queen at Kenilworth, in 1575, says
that thirteen Bears were provided for the occasion
and that they were baited with a great sort of
ban-dogs.* In these accounts we find no mention
made of a ring put through the Bear's nose, which
certainly was the more modern practice ; hence the
expression by the Duke of Newcastle in " The
Humorous Lovers," printed in 1617: "I fear the
wedlock ring more than the bear does the ring in
his nose."

The office of Chief Master of the Bears was held
under the Crown, with a salary of sixteen pence a
day. Whenever the Sovereign chose to be enter-

* " A Letter : whearin part of the entertainment vntoo the Queenz
Maiesty at Killingworth Castl, in Warwick Sheer in the Soomerz
Progress 1575 is signified."

28 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

tained with this sport, it was the duty of the
Master to provide bears and dogs, and to super-
intend the baiting. He was invested with un-
limited authority to issue commissions, and to
send his officers into every county in England, who
were empowered to seize and take away any bears,
bulls, or dogs that they thought suitable for the
royal service. The latest record by which this
diversion was publicly authorized is a grant to Sir
Saunders Duncombe, dated October u, 1561, "for
the sole practice and profit of the fighting and com-
bating of wild and domestic beasts within the realm
of England, for the space of fourteen years. "

The nobility also kept their " Bear-ward," who
was paid so much a year, like a keeper, falconer, or
other retainer. Twenty shillings was the payment
made in 1 5 1 2 to the " Bear- ward " of the fifth Earl of
Northumberland "when he comyth to my lorde in
Cristnias with his lordshippes beests for makynge of
his lordship's pastyme the said xij. days."

The Prior of Durham, in 1530-1534, kept bears,
and apes too, as we learn, from an entry in the
accounts of the bursar of the monastery, where
the following entry occurs : — Et custodi ursorum et
cimearum [simiarum] domince Principle, i Junii . . 5$.

A travelling "Bear- ward" depended entirely on
his patrons. In the "Household Book" kept by
the steward of Squire Kitson, of Hengrave, Suffolk,
and commenced in 1572, we find, under date July,
1574, the entry : "To a Bear man for bringing his
Bears to Hengrave .... ij.s vjd."

THE BEAR. 29

Paul Hentzner, who, in the capacity of travelling
tutor to a young German nobleman, visited England
in 1598, has left a curious record of his journey in
the form of an " Itinerary," preserved to us through
the instrumentality of Horace Walpole.*

In this " Itinerary " the writer, after describing
the theatres (p. 269), particularly mentions another
place, built in the form of a theatre, which served for
the baiting of bulls and bears. " They are fastened
behind," he says, " and then worried by great
English bulldogs ; but not without great risque to-
the dogs, from the horns of the one and the teeth
of the other ; and it sometimes happens they are
killed upon the spot : fresh ones are immediately
supplied in the place of those that are wounded or
tired."

When any Bear-baiting was about to take place,
it was publicly made known, and the " Bearward "
previously paraded the streets with his animal, to
excite the curiosity of the populace, and induce
them to become spectators of the sport. On these
occasions the Bear, who was usually preceded by a
minstrel or two, carried a monkey or baboon on his
back. In " The Humorous Lovers," the play above
referred to, " Tom of Lincoln " is mentioned as the
name of a famous Bear, and one of the characters,
pretending to personate a " Bearward," says ; " I'll
set up my bills, that the gamesters of London, Horsly-

* "A Journey into England by Paul Hentzner in the year 1598."
First printed in the year 1757, and contained also in Dodsley's
'• Fugitive Pieces," vol. ii. pp. 233-311 (1765).

30 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

down, Southwark,* and Newmarket may come in
and bait him before the ladies; but first, boy, go
fetch me a bagpipe ; we will walk the streets in
triumph, and give the people notice of our sport."

The two following advertisements, published in the
reign of Queen Anne, will serve as specimens of the
manner in w7hich these pastimes were announced to
the public : —

" At the Bear Garden in Hockley-in-the-Hole, near
Clerkenwell Green, this present Monday, there is a
great match to be fought, by two dogs of Smithfield
Bars, against two dogs of Hampstead, at the Reading
Bull, for one guinea to be spent : five let-goes out of
hand ; which goes fairest and furthest in wins all.
Likewise there are two Bear-dogs to jump three
jumps a piece at the Bear, which jumps highest for
ten shillings to be spent. Also a variety of Bull-
baiting and Bear-baiting ; it being a day of general
sport by all the old gamesters ; and a bulldog to be
drawn up with fireworks. Beginning at three
o'clock."

A second advertisement runs thus : — " At William
Well's Bear-garden in Tuttle Fields, Westminster,
this present Monday, there will be a green Bull
baited, and twenty dogs to fight for a collar ; and
the dog that runs furthest and fairest wins the
collar : with other diversions of Bull and Bear
baiting. Beginning at two of the clock."t

* The Bear-garden at South wark, with its " band-dogges or mas-
tives," three of which were able to hold down a bear, is briefly alluded
to by Camden, vol. i. p. 434 (ed. Holland).

t Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes," p. 237.

THE BEAR. 31

Sometimes as many as seven bears were exhibited
at once, each confined by a long rope or chain, and
baited with three or four large and courageous dogs,
who rushed upon him with open jaws. The bears,
ferocious and fretful with continued fighting, were of
great strength, and not only defended themselves
with their teeth, but hugged the dogs to death, or
half suffocated them before their masters could release
them. The bears generally bore the same names as
their owners — "Hunx," "George Stone," " Old Harry
of Tame," and " Great Ned," were well-known public
characters, and Shakspeare alludes to one named
"Sackerson."

Sometimes the bear broke loose, to the terror of
women and children. On one occasion a great blind
bear broke his chain, and bit a piece out of a serving-
man's leg, who died of the wound in three days. On
such emergencies a daring gallant would often run
up and seize the furious beast, entangled as he was
with dogs, and secure him by his chain. It was
to an exploit of this kind that Master Slender
referred when, boasting of his prowess to Mistress
Anne Page, he said: — "I have seen ' Sackerson'
loose twenty times, and have taken him by the
chain ; but, I warrant you, the women have so cried
and shrieked at it, that it passed : but women,
indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured
rough things." — Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. i.

Shakspeare has drawn not a few illustrations
and metaphors from this rude sport. In another
place he speaks of the bearward's bears frightening

3 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the fell-lurking curs by the mere shaking of their
chains, and describes a hot o'er weening cur running
back and biting his owner, who withheld him, yet
when suffered to get within reach of the bear's fell
paw, clapped his tail between his legs and howled. —
Second Part of Henry VI. act v. sc. i.

The noise of the bear-gardens must have been
well-nigh unendurable, what with the din of men
eager to bet on their favourites, and the loud shouts
of the respective partisans of dog and bear. At the
present day the comparison of a noisy house to a
" bear-garden" still perpetuates the national amuse-
ment of our forefathers.

Happily, such pastimes have long been obsolete,
although the memory of these bygone days is still
occasionally revived by an attempted exhibition of a
tame performing bear.*

* Singularly enough while these pages were passing through the
press the daily papers of August n, 1880, furnished a report of a
summons which had just been heard by the magistrate at Greenwich
against two Frenchmen who had been brought before him " charged
with exhibiting a bear in the streets, to the danger of the public." A
constable stated that on the afternoon of the previous day he was on
duty at Eushey Green, Lewisham, when a party of ladies drove up in
a carriage and said that some men were performing with a strange
animal at Catford Bridge, and that their horse would not pass it. He
went to the bridge, where he saw the two Frenchmen with a bear,
which was dancing, turning summersaults, and climbing a pole. He
told them that such exhibitions were not allowed in the public streets,
and on their continuing the performance he took them into custody.
The magistrate told the men that if they would at once leave the
country with the bear, he would let them go. They gave the desired
promise, and were accordingly discharged.

33

THE BEAVER

Castor fiber.

THERE is no reason to doubt that, within historic
times, the Beaver was an inhabitant of Britain,
although, like the Bear, the Wolf, and the Wild Boar,
it has long been exterminated before the advance of
civilization.

The earliest notice we find of it is contained in
the code of Welsh laws made by Howel Dha
(A.D. 940), and which, unlike the ancient Saxon codes
and the Irish Senchus Mor, contains many quaint

34 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

laws relating to hunting and fishing. It is there
laid down that the king is to have the worth of
Beavers, Martens, and Ermines, in whatsoever spot
they shall be killed, because from them the borders
of the king's garments are made.

The price of a Beaver's skin, termed " croen
llostlydan" at that time was fixed at 120 pence,
while the skin of a Marten was only 24 pence, and
that of a Wolf, Fox, and Otter 8 pence. This shows
that even at that period the Beaver was a rare animal
in Wales.

The superior warmth and comfort which the
Beaver's skin afforded, added to the reputation of
the medicinal properties of the castor, must have
operated as a very powerful incitement to hunt the
Beaver in those early times. We must, therefore,
refer the period of their abundance in this country
to an age much earlier than that of Howel Dha, the
period, perhaps, before the Britons were driven from
the more southern parts of Britain into the wilds of
Cambria by the Romans, Danes, and Saxons, and
when the mountainous wilds of Wales were almost
unreclaimed from a state of Nature by the hand of
cultivation. At such a time, it is very likely, the
Beavers were numerous in many of the mountain
streams and pools, but after the defeat of Vortigern,
who settled with a remnant of his scattered Britons
among these mountains, it is easy to conceive the
Beaver would be sought for by the hunters, perhaps
for the sake of food, and certainly for its fur ; so
that after the lapse of some centuries which passed

THE BEAVER. 35

before the time of Howel Dha, its numbers
would be progressively diminished, and that very
considerably. There still remained, however, ex-
tensive wastes in Howel's time, for it was among
the laws of that prince that every man was entitled
to so much land of that kind as he should bring into
cultivation. We cannot imagine, therefore, that the
Beaver was unable to find a secure retreat among
the valleys of these barren mountains, the hills of
Snowdon.*

Howel Dha died in the year 948 ; the travels
of Giraldus de Barri — or, as he is generally
styled, Giraldus Cambrensis — did not take place
till about two hundred and fifty years after-
wards ; it cannot, therefore, excite surprise that the
Beaver had then become scarce and local, since
we have seen the value attached to its skin, and
established by law between two and three centuries
before that time.

In his quaint account of the journey he made
through Wales in 1188, in company with Baldwin,
Archbishop of Canterbury (who afterwards fell before
Acre in the train of Richard Cceur de Lion), Giraldus
tells us that the Beaver was found in the river Teivi
in Cardiganshire, and gives a curious account of its
habits, apparently derived in some part from his own
observation, t

Harrison, in his description of England prefixed to
Holinshed's "Chronicles," remarks: "For to saie

* Donovan, " British Quadrupeds."
t " Itinerary," ed. Hoare, vol. ii. p. 49.

3 6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the truth we have not manie Bevers but onelie in
the Teifie in Wales."* The precise spot on the
river appears to have been Kilgarran, which is
situated on the summit of a rock at a place called
Canarch Mawr (now Kenarth), where there is a
salmon leap.

Drayton, in his " Polyolbion " (song vi.), has thus
versified the tradition : —

More famous long agone, than for the salmon's leap,
For Beavers Tivy was, in her strong banks that bred,
Which else no other brook of Britain nourished:
Where Nature in the shape of this now perish'd beast
Her property did seem to have wondrously exprest.

There is some reason for supposing, however, that
there were other rivers in Wales, besides the Teivi,
which were frequented by these animals. " In the
Conway," says Camden, " is the Beavers' pool," and a
portion of the river bank above Llanwrst is supposed
to have been a Beavers' dam.

Sir Bichard Colt Hoare, in his edition of the
" Itinerary " of Giraldus, remarks : " If the Castor
of Giraldus, and the Avanc of Humphrey Llwyd and
of the Welsh dictionaries, be really the same animal,
it certainly is not peculiar to the Teivi, but was
equally known in North Wales, as the names of the
places testify. A small lake in Montgomeryshire is
called Llyn yr Afangc ; a pool in the river Conway,
not far from Bettws, bears the same name (the
Beavers' Pool) ; and the name of the vale called
Nant Ffrancon, upon the river Ogwen, in Caernar-

* Holinshed's " Chronicles," vol. i. p. 379.

THE BEAVER. 37

vonshire, is supposed by the natives to be a cor-
ruption from Nant yr afancwm, or the Vale of the
Beavers."

Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary (1801), says that it
has been " seen in this valley within the memory of
man ;" but says Sir Richard Hoare, " I am much
inclined to think that 'Avanc' or 'Afangc' is nothing
more than an obsolete or perhaps local name for the
common ^Otter, an animal exceedingly well known
hi all our lakes and rivers, and the recognition of
it by Mr. Owen considerably strengthens my sup-
position. Afancwm is evidently the plural of Afangi,
composed of the words A/an, a corrupt pronuncia-
tion of Afon (a river), and Ci (a dog), synonymous, as
I conceive, with Dyfrgi (the water-dog), which is the
common appellation of the Otter amongst the Welsh.
The term ' Mostly dan,' or broad-tail, from Llost (tail)
and Llydan (broad), appears to be more immediately
applicable to the character of the Beaver as described
by naturalists, and is equally authorized by the Welsh
Dictionaries, though not so often used as Afangc."*

Upon this we would remark that, while it is pretty
certain that the animal seen, according to Owen,
" within the memory of man," was the Otter, the
minute description given by Giraldus shows that the
animal to which he referred was the Beaver.

Describing the river Lleder at its junction with
the Conway, Wood says :f — " From a more westerly
course the Conway here turns nearly due north, and

* " Itinerary," ed. Hoare, vol. ii. pp. 55-57.

t "The Principal Rivers of Wales Illustrated." 4to, 1813, part ii.
p. 239.

D 2

38 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

exhibits the most enchanting views, in which the
grand features of the mountains are most happily
blended with the softer woodland scenery of the
vale. On either side the river, rude rocks rear their
naked heads, a scanty covering of underwood com-
mences half way down, which, increasing as it
descends, intermixed with rock, clothes the bottom
through which the river winds. In the midst of
this luxuriant wood, a stone bridge of one large arch
is seen crossing the stream. This bridge is called
Pont Lli/n ar Avangc, or the Bridge of the Beavers'
Pool, from its situation at the head of a deep pool in
the river Conway, in old times frequented by those
animals." He adds, " One part of Nant Francon is
named Sarn ar Avangc, or the Beavers' Dam : and it
is improbable that a people would not only have a
name for an animal in their language, but actually
assign the places frequented by them, unless such
animal had existed in that country."

Amongst the Welsh historians, Sir John Price
and Humphry Llwyd have both noticed the former
existence of the Beaver in Wales. The first-
named of these authorities, Sir John Price, is the
author of a description of Cambria that is usually
found annexed to the History of Wales, continued
from Caradoc of Llancarvon, the contemporary of
Geoffrey of Monmouth. This description of the
Cambrian principality by Sir John Price was written
in the time of Henry VIII., and was afterwards
augmented by Humphry Llwyd, Gent., of Denbigh,
who died in 1568. The work in consequence did not

THE BEAVER. 39

appear till the time of Queen Elizabeth, when an
English translation of it was inserted by Dr. Powel, in
his " History of Wales," published in 1588. We are
thus minute in describing the circumstance, because
the passage we are proceeding to notice has been
attributed to Dr. Powel, while from the preceding
observations it will appear to be really the writing of
a much earlier author. The passage is as follows : —
" Kdarup Greek, Fiber Latin, Beaver English, Afanc
British. Giraldus in Itinerarium."

" In Teivi, above all the rivers in Wales, were in
Giraldus's time a great number of Castors, which
may be Englished Beavers, and are called in Welsh
avanc, which name onelie remaineth in Wales at this
date, but what it is very few can tell. It is a beast
not much unlike an Otter, but it is bigger, all hearie
saving the taile, which is like a fishe taile, as broad
as a man's hand. This beaste useth as well the
water as the land, and hath very sharp teeth, and
biteth cruellie till he perceive the bones cracke."

After mentioning the efficacy of the secretions
of this animal in physic, the writer proceeds :
" He that will learn what strong nests they make,
which Giraldus calleth castells, which they build
upon the face of the water with great bows (boughs)
which they cut with their teeth, and how some lie
upon their backs, holding the wood with their
fore feet, which the other draweth with a crosse stick,
the which he holdeth in his mouth, to the water-
side ; and the other particularities of their natures,
let him read Giraldus, in his Topographic of Wales."

40 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

After stating that the Teivi was the only river in
Wales, or even in England, that had Beavers,
Giraldus remarks : " In Scotland they are said to be
found in one river, but are very scarce." Hector
Boece (or Boethius), that shrewd old father of
Scottish historians, writing in 1526, enumerates the
Fibri* or Beavers, with perfect confidence, amongst
the ferce naturae of Loch Ness, whose fur was in
request for exportation towards the end of the
fifteenth century, and he even speaks of "an incom-
parable number," though perhaps he may be only
availing himself of a privilege which moderns have
taken the liberty of granting to medieval authors
when dealing with curious facts. Bellenden, in his
vernacular translation of Boethius' "Croniklis of
Scotland," which he undertook at royal request in
J536, while omitting stags, roe-deer, and even
otters, in his anxiety for accuracy, mentions " Bevers "
without the slightest hesitation ; and, though ex-
ception may be taken to the first clause of the
sentence, yet the passage is worth quoting : "Mony
wyld Hors and amang yame are mony Martrikis
[pine martens], Bevers, Quhitredis [weasels], and
Toddis [foxes], the furrings and skynnis of thayme are
coft [bought] with great price amang uncouth [foreign]
merchandis."

More than a century later, Sir Robert Sibbald was
unable to say that the Beaver still existed in Scotland.
In his " Scotia lllustrata," published in 1 684, he

* Fibri, from Fiber, denoting an animal that is fond of the Jlbrum
or edge, of the water.

THE BEAVER. 41

remarks (par. iii. cap. v.), " Boethius dicit Fibrum seu
Castorem in Scotia reperiri, an mine reperiatur
nescio."

It is more than probable, says Dr. Robert Brown,
that the worthy historians were influenced by a little
of the natural pride of country — the " perfervidum
ingenium Scotorum " — when they recorded the Beaver
as an inhabitant of Loch Ness in the fifteenth
century, since no mention is made of it in an Act of
Parliament dated June, 1424, although " mertricks,
foumartes, otters, and toddis " are specified. They
were perhaps so strongly impressed by the wide-
spread tradition of its existence in former days as to
lead them to enumerate it among the animals of
Scotland, and it may be observed that the authors
quoted boast immoderately of the productions of their
country. At the beginning of the century (at least)
the Highlanders had a peculiar name for the animal
— Losleatlian * or Dobhran losleathan, the Broad-
tailed Otter ; and, according to Dr. Stewart of Luss,
in a letter to the late Dr. Patrick Neill, Secretary of
the Wernerian Society of Natural History, a tradi-
tion used to exist that the Beaver, or Broad-tailed
Otter, once lived in Lochaber.

Of the Beaver in Scotland, says Stuart, f there is
later testimony than of the Bear. Like that animal,
it has left in its radical Gaelic name, Dobhar-Chu,\

* Compare the Welsh Llostlydan.

f " Lays of the Deer Forest," vol. ii. p. 216.

£ In the modern confusion of obsolete terms, this name is some-
times confounded with that of the Otter, which is Dolhar-an. —
Stuart, op. cit.

42 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the water-dog, an evidence of its aboriginal nativity
in Scotland ; and its existence in Britain is noticed
in a romance not anterior to the twelfth century,* of
which the materials were probably derived from
Wales.

It must be confessed that the written records we
have of its occurrence are very fragmentary, and not
wholly satisfactory ; but abundant evidence of its
former existence in this country at a date long
anterior to these historical notices is supplied by the
remains of the animal which have been exhumed in
various places, both in England and Scotland.

In the third volume of the " Memoirs of the Wer-
nerian Nat. Hist. Society" (1821, p. 207), is an
account by the late Dr. Neill of some remains of
Beavers found in Perthshire at the Loch of Marlee,
Kinloch, and in Middlestots Bog, Kimmerghame, in
Berwickshire.! Another skull exhumed at Linton,
in Roxburghshire, is preserved in the Museum at
Kelso. j Other remains of Beavers, considered to
be identical with the species found in North America
at the present day, have been discovered at Mun-
desley, Bacton, and Happesburg, Norfolk, in the
nuvio-marine crag near Southwold, Suffolk, in the
peat near Newbury,§ and in the Thames Valley at
Crossness Point, near Erith. ||

* Fragment of the " Romance of Sir Tristram," MS. in the Douce
Collection, No. 2.

f See, also, Dr. C. Wilson, 'On the Prior Existence of the Castor
fiber in Scotland,' Edinb. New Phil. Journ., 1858, N.S., vol. viii.

J " Proc. Berwicks. Nat. Club," vol. ii. p. 48.

§ Collet, " Phil. Trans.," 1757, p. 112.

|| Boyd Dawkins, Popular Science Review, 1868, p. 39.

THE BEAVER. 43

The species has also occurred in a semi-fossil con-
dition in Cambridgeshire,^ and at one time, it would
seem, this animal must have been common in the
eastern counties of England. Mr. Skertchley, in his
remarks on the prehistoric fauna of the Fens,f says,
" The remains of the Beaver are tolerably abundant
in the Fens ;" and further on he adds : " So far as
my observation goes, the Beaver did not build dams
in the Fens, owing, in all probability, to the abun-
dance of still water. The late J. K. Lord, an ex-
perienced trapper, remarked that in North America
the Beaver only constructs dams in running streams,
and chooses still water where possible, to save the
labour of architecture. "

Mr. Henry Reeks, however, writing in December,
1879, states that if such is the case it is utterly
opposed to the habits of these animals as observed
by him in Newfoundland. He says " Newfoundland
is a vast lake district, abounding in ponds and lakes,
from a few hundred yards to many miles in length
and breadth ; Beavers also are still plentiful there. It
is, however, a fact that out of the hundreds of Beavers'
houses I saw there, none were built in ponds or lakes,
but invariably on the brooks running into or from
the lake. From my own observations, I do not
think it would accord with the economy of the
Beaver to build a house in still water, especially in
countries like Canada and Newfoundland — where,
during the winter, there would probably be an

* Jenyns' " British Vertebrate Animals," p. 34.
t " The Fenland, Past and Present," p. 348.

44 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS,

average of five feet of snow on the ground (although,
of course, not evenly distributed), which means a
rise of at least two feet of water in the ponds and
lakes at the break-up of winter. How then would
a Beaver manage this superabundance of still water ?
You will probably say. " that's best known to the

CRANIUM OF BEAVER FROM THE FENS. LTTER SURFACE, (g NAT. SIZE.)*

Beaver himself!" Just so ; but we know what a
Beaver does under similar circumstances when he
has built his house and dam on a running brook.
During the summer months Beavers often frequent
ponds and lakes at a distance from their houses for
the purpose of feeding on the stems and roots of a
pond lily (Nupliar advena). When a Beaver's house

* From a specimen in the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons.

THE BEAVER. 45

is placed on the margin of a lake, I think it will
invariably be found to be at the mouth of a small
brook running out of the lake, and vice versa."

Pennant, or rather his editor, refers to a complete
head of a Beaver, with the teeth entire, which was
found in the peat at Komsey, Hants, * and Mr. F.

CRANIUM OF BEAVER FROM THE FENS. UNDER SURFACE. (£ NAT. S17K).

Buckland has a fine specimen of a Beaver's jaw,
which was dug up in a fen in Lincolnshire ; various
portions of the skeleton have been discovered in
Kent's Hole, Devonshire, the only British cave which
has yielded the remains of this animal, f

* " British Zoology," vol. i. p. 60, note (ed. 1812).
f Pengelly on the Ossiferous Caverns of Devonshire, " Eeport Brit.
Assoc. 1869," p. 208, and 1877, pp. 1-8.

46 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Fossil remains of an extinct Beaver, closely allied
to, but much larger than, the existing species, have
been found in the Norwich crag at Cromer. Prof.
Owen has described it under the name Trogontherium
Cuvieri.*

The town of Beverley, in Yorkshire, is said to
have derived its name from the number of Beavers
found in the vicinity, when in the eighth century
(about 7 1 o) St. John of Beverley built his hermitage
there, the foundation of the town. The stream on
which the town was built was then called in Anglo-
Saxon "Beofor-leag," or "the Beavers Lea;" but
this has become softened down into its present pro-
nunciation and spelling. " The town," says Leland,
" hath yn theyr common seal the figure of a
bever."f Other places in England also seem to
indicate by their names the ancient haunts of this
animal, as Beverege (Worcestershire), and Bevere
Island, formed by the Beverburn or " Barbon" (two
miles north of Worcester), Bevercotes (Nottingham-
shire), Beverstone (Gloucestershire), and Beversbrook
(Wiltshire).

The lately-attempted re-introduction of the Beaver
into Scotland by the Marquis of Bute deserves some
notice here.

In a solitary pine wood near Rothesay, in the Isle

* " British Fossil Mammals," p. 184.

t Other authorities, however, suggest a different derivation — e.g.,
in Phillips' " Yorkshire" (and ed. p. 105) we read : " At Beverley was
the shrine of St. John, preceded by an earlier settlement marked by
four stones, from which we infer that it was the British Pedivarllecli ,
and Greek Petonar, chief city of the Parisoi, as it still is of the East
Hiding. From Pedwarllech we have Bevorlac, Bevevley."

THE BE A VER. 47

of Bute, a space of ground has been walled in so that
the Beavers cannot escape, and through this Beaver's
park runs a mountain stream. Left to themselves,
they have quite altered the appearance of this stream,
for they have built no fewer than three dams across
it ; the lowest is the largest and most firmly con-
structed, as it would seem the Beavers were fully
aware that it would have to bear the greatest
pressure of water. In order to strengthen this dam,
these intelligent animals have supported the down-
stream surface of it with props of strong boughs, as
artfully secured as though a human engineer had been
at work. Immediately above this the Beavers have
constructed their hut or home, consisting apparently
of a large heap of drift wood ; upon examination
however, it appears that the sticks have been placed
with regularity and order, so that the general
appearance of the hut is not unlike that of a bird's
nest turned upside down. The Beavers have cut
down a good many trees in their park, gnawing a
wedge-shaped gap into one side of the tree until it
totters, and then going round to the other side and
gnawing the only portion of wood which prevents it
from falling. If the felled log is too heavy for
transport, they cut it into pieces, which they roll
away separately. Although there have been one or
two deaths, it is satisfactory to learn that these
Beavers have bred in the island since their introduc-
tion. In December, 1877, there were twelve known
to be alive. They were reported to be very shy,
retiring into their hut, or into the water, at the least

48 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

alarm. Besides the vegetable food they pick up,
they are fed principally with willow boughs, the bark
of which they are said to strip off with the neatness
of a basket-maker.

Mr. Charles Hockin, who spent a fortnight, during
the summer of 1879, at the primitive little village of
Kilchattan Bay, in the Isle of Bute (which is only
about a couple of miles from the Marquis of Bute's
Beaver ponds), has been kind enough to supply us
with the following account of his visit : —

" The Beavers have, I am informed by their keeper,
increased considerably in number during the last few
years, and numbered in 1878 about twenty-seven or
twenty-eight, and there are, it is believed, eight or
ten more this year ; certainly, judging by their
works, they are increasing. They have now five or
six weirs, or dams, across the stream, of which the
second largest was partially carried away by the
floods of the late spring, and now displays, in its
section where cut off by the water, the wonderful
cleverness of these interesting little engineers.

" The largest dam they have constructed is about a
hundred and twenty feet in length, and gives a depth
of water in the pond above it of some eight or nine
feet. It is arched against the stream in a manner
showing almost human ingenuity, taking advantage
of one or two trees, which originally must have stood
on the very edge of the stream (a mere rivulet) ;
it is built up of logs varying from two to four feet in
length, and from one to four or five inches in diameter,
worked together and filled in with mud, and

THE BE A VER. 49

measures some eight or ten feet thick at the base,
and about two feet at the top.

" The house which they have built for themselves is
constructed of similar materials, and presents a
dome-shaped top of about ten feet in diameter,
rising some two or three feet above the water.
There are two entrances or doors to the house, both
being at the bottom of the water, and an air-hole or
ventilator is left at the top, protected with sticks or
logs.

" In addition to the house, they have constructed
several burrows, which, entering the ground under
water, run into the bank for three or four yards, and
are provided with a ventilator similar to that in the
house.

"The largest pond, that in which the house is
placed, is about thirty yards long by ten or twelve
yards wide at the widest, the dam inclosing a little
bay or inlet at one end, thus accounting for its extra
length.

"It is very wonderful to observe the manner in
which these little workmen fell trees (some of them
upwards of two feet in diameter), and almost in-
variably bring them down so as to fall directly
towards the water, thus giving them a shorter
distance to drag the bark and branches when lopped
off; and it is only when a tree, being nearly cut
through at the base, succumbs in a storm coming
from a wrong direction, or when, as it occasionally
happens, they themselves wish it otherwise, that
they fail to bring the trees down directly towards

5o EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the stream. There is one instance of this latter fact
which is very difficult to explain. A tree of about a
foot in diameter grew close to the base of one of the
dams, leaning at a considerable angle over the dam,
and this, for some reason best known to themselves,
they had left standing long after they had cut down
trees at a considerable distance from the stream ;
but last spring they started to cut it down, and
down it came — not, as it would be supposed, in the
direction in which it leaned (which would have
brought it right across the dam), but backwards
from the water, and nearly exactly in a contrary
direction from that in which it grew. How this was
done I do not pretend to say, nor why, for it was not
of the description of tree on which they feed (mostly
Scotch fir) ; but there it lay, having been down
some months, with all its bark on and the branches
not lopped off, clear of the dam and stream.

"The mode of felling trees is very interesting;
their teeth cut as clean and sharp as a chisel, and
the modus operandi (as seen by the keeper in his
moonlight watches) is, a cut above and a cut below,
a wrench, and out comes the chip. They appear
never to work more than one at a time at each tree —
i.e., so far as the cutting down is concerned — and to
relieve one another at regular intervals, all work
being done at night or in the very early morning.
Two or more will join together to drag or roll a log to
the water which is too heavy for one to manage, and
the bark is always stripped off and stored under
water for winter consumption, before the branches

THE BEAVER. 51

are cut into lengths and carried off for building
purposes.

" The story that Beavers use their broad flat tails
as a ' trowel ' for plastering purposes is said by the
keeper (who has spent a very great deal of time in
watching their habits, getting up into a tree before
dark, and sitting there without sound or motion for
hours and hours) to be a myth. He describes the
process of plastering as follows : The Beaver swims
away from the dam or house upon which it is at
work for some distance, then dives, and emerges

LOWER JAW OF BEAN Ell FROM. THE FEXS. (J NAT. SIZE.)*

again close to the dam or house, carrying the mud
in its mouth. It then places it where required, and
proceeds to knead it with its forefeet; and when
one considers the enormous amount of work entailed
in thus plastering a dam of Soft, or looft. long,
i oft. to isft. thick at the base, and 8ft. to loft,
high, it makes one wish that our human workmen
would display a little more of the indomitable per-
severance shown by these wonderful little creatures.

* From a specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

5 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

" They are remarkably shy of anything human, and
upon the least alarm ' flop ' goes one of the flat tails
upon the water, and 'presto!' not a Beaver is to
be seen.

" They feed mostly on the inner bark of the Scotch
fir, great quantities of which they store under water
near their house ; they also eat the younger shoots of
the bracken fern, and one or two smaller shrubs of
which I do not know the names. They are also very
fond of the bark of young willow shoots, which the
keeper supplies them with from time to time in the
winter."

Since the date of Mr. Hockin's visit the keeper
who has charge of these Beavers, Mr. J. S. Black, has
published a most interesting account of them in the
Journal of Forestry, for February, 1880,* which
we cannot do better than quote in extenso. He says : —

"In 1874, the Marquis of Bute having obtained four
beavers, caused a space of from three to four acres in
extent to be enclosed in the wood between Meikle
Kilchattan and Drumreach, and placed them there.
These not succeeding, his lordship, on 6th January,
1875, obtained seven others. Of these, four suc-
ceeded so well that in 1878 I was certain .of sixteen
being alive, which makes an average increase of four
each season. There is a further increase this season,
but to what extent I cannot say.

" Arriving as they did in midwinter, these little

* ' A Short Account of tow the Marquis of Bute's Beavers have
succeeded in the Isle of Bute, Scotland.' By Joseph Stuart Black,
Keeper, Bute Estate.

THE BEAVER. 53

animals, I can assure you, had a pretty hard time of it.
However, after a few days' rest, having viewed the
situation, they set vigorously to work to make them-
selves comfortable, and began to construct a dam by
forming a dyke or embankment across a small moor-
land stream running through the enclosure ; at the
same time they commenced to build a house to live in.
" The materials of which the dyke is constructed
are wood, grass, mud, and a few stones which are
used for the purpose of keeping the grass and
smaller pieces of wood in their place until more Is
built on the top of them. They have continued rais-
ing this embankment to a certain extent every year,
until it has now attained the following dimensions,
viz. : — length, seventy feet ; height in the deepest
part, fully eight feet; breadth of base at deepest
part, from fifteen to twenty feet, sloped inside, not
straight across, but finely arched against the stream,
so that it may the more easily resist the great pres-
sure of water which it has to bear ; — perfectly level,
so that when a spate of water comes down it may
run evenly over the top from side to side. So sub-
stantially have they built it, that no material damage
has occurred to it from all the floods that have passed
over it. They use a number of the larger pieces of wood
as props, by fixing the thick end into the ground
and the small end on the top, then build on the top
of these, so as to fix them firmly. It would require
to be seen to appreciate the great skill displayed in
its construction ; as I think it would tax the energies
of a Bateman or a Gale to make a better with the

E 2

54 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

same materials. If any damage does occur, they im-
mediately find it out and repair it. I have seen them
swim along the edge of the embankment, carefully
examining it to ascertain the part most needful of re-
pairs, then go to work with a will to rectify it. The
dam is now seventy-eight yards long of still water.

" Besides the dam already mentioned, upon which
they bestow great care in its construction, owing to
the house being built in it, they have other seven,
some larger, some smaller ; one of them having an
embankment 105 feet long, and an average depth
of three feet. These serve as places of refuge if the
beavers are disturbed when out roaming about in quest
of food or felling the trees, also as a waterway for con-
veying their food by when storing it for winter.

In the construction of their dwelling the same
kind of materials are used. As to how they built it :
you must understand that for a considerable distance
along one side of the stream, or burn, the ground
rises in a steep bank, but about twenty yards above
where they began to build the embankment for the
dam there was a small level spot which they selected.
Then at the bottom of the water they burrowed in
three or four feet, rose up eight or ten inches,
scooped out a space large enough to hold themselves,
broke a hole in the surface about six inches in
diameter, then began to cover it over with sticks,
grass, and a few stones, always keeping it open in
the centre by placing a few sticks perpendicularly,
so as to act as a ventilator, and as the water rose in
the dam and the family increased, they continued to

THE BEAVER. 55

build and enlarge the house, cutting their way up
and forming their chamber or chambers inside, until it
had now attained the following dimensions at the
surface of the water (which is here about four feet
deep), viz.-: — height about five feet, length and
breadth about nine feet, having a door at both sides
placed at the bottom of the water so as to prevent
their natural enemies from following them, chief
among which is the wolverine, although happily for
both them and us there are none of these here to
disturb them.

' ' It is out of the water they take the materials with
which they build their house. Were the sides of
the house perpendicular they could not land ; to
obviate that difficulty they built a slip from two to
three feet broad at its base, except where the doors
are, so that they can land easily, and if they wish to
enlarge the house they have got the foundation
ready. To secure them against the winter storms,
they commence about the middle of September and
give their house a coat of mud all over. It is with
the mouth and forefeet, which are formed more like
hands than feet, that they convey the materials of
which their embankment and house are made. They
do not use their tail, as was at one time said, for
plastering on the mud, but their forefeet, with which
they very carefully stow it in among the sficks. As
to what they use for a bed to lie on, it is wood
shavings, which they prepare in the following manner.
After using the bark for food, they then place the
stick on end, holding it with both feet a bit apart

56 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

then with their teeth pare it down into fine shavings.
They are very cleanly in their habits, as they often
clean out their house, not casting away the refuse,
but using it either on the top of the house or the
embankment of the dam to patch up a hole.

" Their food in winter consists wholly of the bark
of trees ; had they a choice I have no hesitation in
saying they would prefer the willow and poplar.
These not growing in the enclosure they had just to
adapt themselves to circumstances, and take a share
of what trees they could get, consisting of oak, plane
tree, elm, thorn, hazel, Scotch fir, and larch. Of the
hardwood, they seem to prefer elm to plane tree,
then oak, of which they eat sparingly. Of the firs,
the Scotch has the preference ; as for the larch they
did not touch it till early in 1878, since which time
they have taken to it very well. As for the alder
and spruce fir, they eat almost nothing of them.
Along with all these, we have always given them a
supply of willow. In summer they eat freely of the
common bracken, likewise grass, and young shoots of
every description growing in the place. In autumn
they grub up and feed upon roots, chief among which
is the tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla], better known
to Scotch people as ' tormentil root,' and the young
tender shoots of the common ' spurts' before they
appear above ground, at the same time cutting down
a tree now and again and feeding on the bark.

"As to the tree-felling it is all done at night ; the
number which they have cut down amounts now to
187 trees from five feet in circumference downwards.

THE BEAVER. 57

These are all forest trees, besides a great many smaller
bushes. Before cutting down a tree, they mark it
all round at the height at which they wish to cut it.
They begin to cut at the opposite side to which they
intend the tree shall fall, invariably making it fall
with the top to the water. Where they grow near
enough, they make them fall across the stream or
dam, causing many to suppose that they are so
placed to form a bridge, whereby they may cross
from one side of the water to another. They do not
require a bridge, they can swim, and rather than
cross over a prostrate tree they dive under it. My
impression is they are so placed to break the current
of the water when the stream is flooded ; also if con-
venient they take advantage of building a dam where
some of the trees lie across the water. Those lying
across in their principal dam are utilized in storing up
their winter food, these stores being built on the
upper side of the trees, so that they cannot be swept
away with the winter flood.

"When cutting the trees they use their teeth, on
the same principle that a forester does an axe, always
keeping plenty of open space, so that they can cut
past the centre of the tree on one side before begin-
ning on the other. It is in the latter end of autumn
they commence to cut down trees for winter food.
Having cut them down, they speedily strip off the
branches, cutting them into lengths to suit their
strength for dragging them away to the dam, where
they store them in different places near their house,
so that they may have sufficient food, although the

5 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

dam may be frozen over, or the ground covered with
snow. What is left of the trunks of the trees that
they cannot drag away, they feed on at leisure, eating
the bark.

"Besides the work above ground which I have tried
to describe, they have done a great amount of under-
ground work, such as cutting channels in their darns,
and making burrows. These burrows they make by
cutting a road from the middle of the dam for several
yards into the dry ground, where they scoop out a
dome-shaped burrow from eight to ten inches above
the level of the road, then cut a hole through the
surface and cover it over with sticks and grass so as.
to act as a ventilator. Here they live and feed in
security and contentment. Some of the roads to
these burrows are from fifteen to twenty yards long,
and so level that the water follows them in the whole
length.

" As to the time they bring forth their young, from
my own knowledge, I cannot say. I have seen it
stated to be January, and also the beginning of May.
I can say nothing against that, judging from the size
of the young when I first saw them in the second
week of June, the oldest litter being about the size
of a full-grown rabbit, and the youngest not half that
size.

" From careful observation, I have good reasons for
believing they have only one at a birth. One thing
I am certain of, they have two litters in the season.
Beavers are a class of animals that are very timid,
their sight, scent, and hearing very keen, so much

THE BE A VER. 59

HO that it is with great caution they can be approached
near enough to see what they are doing. They are
under cover all day from seven o'clock in the morn-
ing till seven in the evening. When one comes out,
it floats on the surface of the water, carefully survey-
ing the whole scene around, sniffing the air, and if no
danger is apprehended it dives and disappears. In
two or three minutes, a number of the colony begin
to appear and disperse themselves, some to swim and
sport about in the dam, while others go in quest of
food. If one of them espies danger it strikes one
sharp, loud stroke on the water with its tail, when
all of them that are out come tumbling into the dam
and disappear.

" I have seen them wrestle in playfulness and fight
in anger, and- also when the mother was feeding and
the young one sporting about in the dam, I have seen
it go and begin to tease her, when, if she did not wish
to be troubled with it she would strike and shake it,
and pitch it from her in the dam. They will allow
of no laziness in any member of the colony ; if any
such there be, they are beaten and driven out to live
as best they may. These so driven out generally
roam about, making a burrow here and there, wrhere
they live for a few months and die."

This is not the only experiment which has been
made of late years in the reintroduction of Beavers
into this country. A similar attempt was previously
made in Suffolk. Some Beavers were turned down
by Mr. Barnes, of Sotherley Park, Wangford, and,
on their dams being destroyed as nn eye- sore, they

Co EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

strayed further down the stream which runs through
the park. They were there two winters, and bred,
having three or four young ones. Two of these,
which strayed, were killed at Beriacre in the spring
of 1872, and one was captured. They began to build
a lodge in the West Bush against Benacre Broad,
did no damage to trees, but destroyed some under-
wood. This third Beaver seems to have been also
killed. Two of the three were sent to London to be
stuffed for Lady Gooch, and the head-keeper took
the skin of the third.

It is interesting to find that, but for the inter-
ference of man, Beavers would still thrive in our
climate, as we learn from geology and history they
formerly did.

A 15EAYKR AT WORK.

6 i

THE REINDEER

Cervus tamndns.

ABOUT the time that the Beaver was building its
dams on the rivers of Wales and Scotland, there was
fast becoming extinct in North Britain another
animal, whose singular form is perhaps better known
than that of most animals, from its being amongst
the earliest presented to youthful naturalists in their
first zoological picture books — for who does not re-
collect the portrait of the Laplander with his Reindeer
in a sledge ?

62 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

This animal was one of the earliest arrivals on
British soil after the ice and snow of the glacial
epoch began to disappear, and it is in caverns and
river gravels and sands of post-glacial age that we
first meet with its remains. Its abundance in
British deposits of this date is very remarkable.
Professor Boyd Dawkins has found portions of its
bones and horns in no less than thirteen out of
twenty-one caverns examined by him, while the Red-
deer was only found in seven ; thus, contrary to what
is generally assumed to be the case, the Reindeer
predominated in numbers over the Red-deer at the
time the British bone caverns were being filled.

In the post-glacial river deposits the same numeri-
cal preponderance of the Reindeer is observed. It
has been found in the gravels of Brentford, in a
railway cutting at Kew Bridge, and higher up the
Thames in a gravel bed at Windsor, where, in the
spring of 1867, numerous remains were discovered.
On visiting the spot with the discoverer, Capt.
Luard, R.E., Professor Boyd Dawkins found that
more than one-half of the remains belonged to the
Reindeer, the rest to Bisons, Horses, Wolves, and
Bears. They had evidently been swept down by
the current from some point higher up the stream.*
In illustration of this accumulation he quotes a
parallel case from the observations of Admiral Yon
Wrangel in Siberia, who remarks :f — " The migrating

* " Early Man in Britain," p. 155.

t " Siberia and the Polar Sea," translated by Major Sabine, 8vo,
1840, p. 190. The obviously exaggerated figures must be taken to
represent the vast numbers of the animals.

THE REINDEER. 63

body of Reindeer consists of many thousands, and
though they are divided into herds of two or three
hundred each, yet the herds keep so near together as
to form only one immense mass, which is sometimes
from fifty to a hundred versts, or thirty to sixty miles,
in breadth. They always follow the same route, and
in crossing the river Aniuj, near Plobischtsche, they
choose a place where a dry valley leads down to a
stream 011 one side and a flat, sandy shore facilitates
their landing on another. As each separate herd ap-
proaches the river, the deer draw more closely to-
gether, and the largest and strongest takes the lead.
He advances, closely followed by a few of the others,
with head erect, and apparently intent on examining
the locality. When he has satisfied himself he enters
the river, the rest of the herd crowd after him, and
in a few minutes the surface is covered with them.
Wolves, bears, and foxes hang upon the flanks and
rear of these great migratory bodies, and prey upon
the stragglers, and invariably many casualties occur
at the fords where the weak or wounded animal is
swept away by the current."

A graphic account is given, by the same author, of
the migration of Keindeer as observed by him in his
journey through the stony Tundra, near the river
Baranicha, in north-eastern Siberia.

"I had hardly finished the observation/ 'he writes,
" when my whole attention was called to a highly
interesting, and to me a perfectly novel spectacle.
Two large migrating bodies of Eeindeer passed us at
no great distance. They were descending the hills

64 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

from the north-west, and crossing the plain on their
way to the forests, where they spend the winter.
Both bodies of deer extended further than the eye
could reach, and formed a compact mass narrowing
towards the front. They moved slowly and majesti-
cally along, their broad antlers resembling a moving
wood of leafless trees. Each body was led by a deer
of unusual size, which my guides assured me was
always a female. One of the herds was stealthily
followed by a Wolf, who was apparently watching for
an opportunity of seizing any one of the younger and
weaker deer which might fall behind the rest ; but
on seeing us he made off in another direction. The
other column was followed at some distance by a
large black Bear, who, however, appeared only intent
on digging out a mouse's nest every now and then —
so much so that he took no notice of us."

On the warrantable assumption that migrations of
a similar character formerly took place in this
country, the large assemblage of animal remains at
the Reindeer-ford at Windsor is easily accounted for.
In the gravels on which Oxford stands, says Professor
Boyd Dawkins, the Reindeer is found in greatest
abundance; at Bedford it is associated with flint
implements, the Red-deer, and Hippopotamus ; at
Lawford, near Rugby, with the Cave Hyoena ; at
Fisherton, near Salisbury, with the Cave Lion, Urus,
Roedeer, Marmot, and Lemming ; in Kent also it is
abundant in the brick earth of Sittingbourne and
Maidstone ; in Somerset in the gravels of the Avon
near Bath. Altogether, it has been determined in

THE REINDEER. 65

ten out of eighteen rivor deposits wliicli have fur-
nished fossil mammals, while the Red-deer has been
found only in nine.""

During the arctic severity of the post-glacial climate
the remains of the Red-deer were rare, while those
of the Reindeer were most abundant. During the
pre-historic period the Red-deer gradually increased
in numbers, while the Reindeer as gradually became
extinct. In its rarity in the latter epoch we have
proof of the great climatal change that had taken
place in France and Britain.

Professor Owen, in his " British Fossil Mammals,"
has figured a skull with antlers of the Reindeer
found in a peat- moss on Bilney Moor, near East
Dereham, Norfolk, and he gives a figure also of a
metatarsal bone of this animal from the fens of
Cambridgeshire. During the excavation that was
made for the reservoir of the southern outfall of the
metropolitan sewage at Crossness Point, on the south
side of the Thames, near Erith, a fine antler of the
Reindeer was discovered at the bottom of a layer of
peat varying from five to fifteen feet in thickness,
along with the remains of Beaver and a human skull.
Another antler was found in a shell marl underlying
the peat near Whit tington Hall, Lancashire. Leigh,
in his "Natural History of Cheshire" (Bk. III. p. 84),
notices a horn of the Reindeer which was found
under a Roman altar at Chester.

In Ireland, as we learn from a ' Report on Irish
Fossil Mammals' by Dr. Leith Adarns (" Proc. Roy.

* Boyd Dawkins, Popular Science Review, January, 1868.

66 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Irish Acad.," 1877, 2nd ser. vol. iii.*), remains of the
Reindeer have been found in shell-marl under the
Bog of Bally guiry, near Dungarvan, co. Waterford ;
in the mud of Lough Gur, co. Limerick ; and in clay
under peat at Ballybetagh, near Kiltiernan,co. Dublin,
where in 1847 the skull, horns, and lower jaw of a
Reindeer were discovered by Mr. Moss. But the
most remarkable discovery of remains of this animal
in Ireland was that made in 1861, when -a very
perfect skull, with the antlers still attached, was
found on the edge of the Curragh Bog, near Ash-
bourne, co. Dublin. This was brought to the notice
of the Royal Dublin Society by Dr. Carte in 1863,
and is regarded as the finest specimen of Reindeer
which has yet been found in a fossil state. t

Dr. Carte has also noticed three antlers, found at
Coonagh, on the south side of the Shannon, in co.
Clare. A large number of remains, representing at
least thirty-five individuals, were found in Shandon
Cave, near Dungarvan, associated with the bones of
other animals. | These specimens have all been
preserved, either in the museum of Trinity College,
or in the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin ; and
a noteworthy character of the horns is the uniformity
of the beam, which is slender and round, as in
English specimens and in the existing Reindeer of

* See also a paper by the same author on ' Recent and Extinct
Irish Mammals,' " Proc. Boy. Dub. Soc.," March, 1878.

t Carte, " Journ. Geol. Soc. Dub.," vol. x., p. 103, pi. vii.; and Geol.
Mag., vol. iii., p. 546.

J Carte, " Journ. Roy. Dub. Soc.," vol. ii. p. 12 ; and Leith Adams,
•" Trans. Eoy. Irish Acad.," vol. xxvi., p. 217.

THE REINDEER. 67

Norway, and unlike the flattened antlers of the
Siberian stock/*

As regards its occurrence in Scotland, much
valuable information has been brought together by
Dr. John Alexander Smith, in a memoir published
in the " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland," and entitled ' Notice of Remains of the
Reindeer (Cervus tarandus), found in Ross-shire,
Sutherland, and Caithness, with notes of its occur-
rence throughout Scotland. 't

In 1866 part of a horn (apparently the tine
that springs from the back part of the middle of the
beam) was found with a flint arrowhead, and bones
of an ox — Bos longifrons — and dog, near two hut
circles, in the course of draining the Mor-aich Mor,
or Great Grazing, as the Gaelic words signify — a
flat, sandy tract to the east of Tain, Ross-shire,
bordered on the north by the Domoch Firth. %

These bones, which lay beneath the moss on a
natural shell bed at no distance below the surface
(the drainage being only carried to the depth of four
feet), were forwarded for examination to Prof. Owen,
who had no hesitation in identifying the horn re-
ferred to as that of a Reindeer.

Several similar fragments were found on clearing
out the ruins of an ancient circular fort or " brocli"

* Leith Adams, "Beport on Irish Fossil Mammals," I.e. Comparative
figures of the horns of Lapland and Siberian Eeindeer are given in
Murray's " Geographical Distribution of Mammals," pp. 152, 153. See
also Sir Victor Brooke, "Proc. Zool. Soc." 1878, p. 927, tig. 19.

t "Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotl.," vol. viii. pp. 186-223.

£ Rev. J. M. Joass, "Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotl.," vol. vi. p. 386.

F

68 EXTINCT BRI'IISH ANIMALS.

at Kintradwell, near Brora, Sutherlandshire, together
with the remains of domesticated animals (as oxen
and swine), an iron spear-head and dagger, and ten
human skeletons.* These notices are regarded by
Dr. Smith as the first which have recorded the dis-
covery of Reindeer remains associated with human;
dwellings in the British Islands.

Pennant, in his " History of Quadrupeds" (vol. L
p. 100, 1781), has referred to some fossil horns of the
Reindeer, which, on the authority of Dr. Ramsay,.
Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh, are
stated to have been found in a marl pit five feet
below the surface, near Craigton, Linlithgowshire.
Dr. John Scouler, of Glasgow, also, has described
some fragments of Reindeer horns from the alluvium
of the Clyde. These were found in beds of finely
laminated sand on the north bank of the river, below
the junction of the Kelvin, where also was discovered
the cranium of a large ox (Bos primigenius] .

In the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, amongst a
collection of deer horns, is preserved a fragment of
the left antler of a Reindeer, which was found in
boulder clay at Raesgill, on the north side of the
Clyde, in the neighbourhood of Carluke.

When the loch of Marlee, in the parish of Kinloch,
Perthshire, had been partly drained for the sake of
the marl, some very interesting animal remains came
to light, amongst others the skeleton of a Beaver,
already referred to, and a pair of horns and some

* See '• Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotl.," vol. v. p. 242.

THE REINDEER. 69

leg bones of the Reindeer.* These are probably the
bones referred to in the old Statistical Account of
Scotland (vol. xvii. p. 478), as having been found in
Mr. Farquharson's marl-pit at Marlee, and surmised
to be those of the Elk.

Dr. Smith has figured the smooth beam of a
right horn of a young or female Reindeer (torn, dt.,
p. 23), taken from a cutting of the Forth and Clyde
Junction Railway, in the basin of the Endrick, near
Croftamie, Dumbartonshire. This specimen, which
was identified by Professor Owen, was not in the
boulder clay, but in a bed of blue clay, about seven
feet thick, below it, between the boulder clay and the
underlying rock of the district.

Again, on the farm of Greenhill, near Kilmaurs,
Ayrshire, some antlers of a large Reindeer were found
thirty- six feet below the surface, together with a
tusk of the Mammoth, t

The late Sir William Jardine had, a few years
since, an opportunity of examining some very interest-
ing animal remains, which were exhumed at Shaws,
about four miles from his residence in Dumfriesshire.
Besides several bones of the Red deer, Roedeer, Bos
primigenius (the last named rare), and a very perfect
skull of the Brown Bear, already referred to, was a
portion of an antler, which, from its outline, flattened
character, and smooth surface, could have belonged
only to a Reindeer ; it measured about twelve

* Neill, " Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc.," vol. iii. p. 214.
f See Geikie, ' Memoir on the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of
Scotland,' "Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow," vol. i. p. 71 (1863).

F 2

70 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

inches long by four and a half inches in its greatest
breadth.

In 1865 Sir Philip Egerton met with a small
fragment of an tier in a peat hag in Ross-shire, which,
according to Professor Boyd Dawkins, " beyond all
doubt belonged to this animal. "

The last instance which we shall notice of the dis-
covery of Reindeer remains in Scotland has reference
to the county of Caithness ; and we take this last
because it leads directly to a consideration of the
historical evidence which is to be found concerning
the former existence of this animal in ScotlancT, and
which evidence relates exclusively to this country.

Dr. Smith, in the memoir referred to, has de-
scribed at some length the ancient circular forts or
"brochs" which are to be met with in some parts of
Scotland, and which in several instances have yielded
such very interesting relics of pre-historic man.
Amongst these is the " broch " of Yarhouse, in
Caithness, about five miles to the sotith of Wick, on
the estate of Thrumster, and at the south end of
the Loch of Yarhouse. Of this Dr. Smith has given
a very full description, from notes by Mr. Anderson
and Mr. Robert Shearer, of Thrumster, who care-
fully examined it, and his remarks are illustrated by
a ground plan, which renders his account the more
instructive. When the examination of this "broch"
first commenced, it was to all appearance nothing
but a grass-covered mound, and was situated on
what had once besn an island, a fosse about twenty
feet broad having separated it from the land. It

THE REINDEER. 71

would be beside our present purpose to refer in
detail to the many interesting objects which were
brought to light on opening up this mound. Suffice
it to say that (in addition to human remains, bones
of domesticated animals, shells of periwinkle, limpet,
and cockle, coarse hand-made pottery and rude stone
implements) the smooth flattened horns of the Rein-
deer came to light, showing that this animal was
either domesticated by the dwellers in the " broch,"
or at all events was hunted by them, and used for
food.

Under very similar conditions, other remains of
the Reindeer have been exhumed from the Har-

FKAGMENTS OP REINDEER HORN, CAITHNESS.*

bour Mound at Keiss Castle, also in Caithness, a
full account of which may be found in Laing's
" Pre-historic Remains of Caithness," and a briefer
notice in Dr. Smith's paper above referred to.
Now, this discovery of the remains of Reindeer asso-

* Copied from the Memoir referred to, by permission of Dr. J. A.
Smith and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

72 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

elated with man in Caithness is of especial interest,
as tending to confirm the truth of the tradition that
the jarls of Orkney in the twelfth century were in
the habit of crossing the Pentland Firth for the
purpose of hunting the Red-deer and the Reindeer
in the wilds of Caithness.

Torfseus, in his history of Orkney (" Orcades, sen
Rerum Orcadensium Historia," Lib. I. cap. xxxvi.),
written at the close of the seventeenth century,
thus translates a passage from the " Orkneyinga
Saga :" " Consueverant Comites in Catenesiam^ndeque
ad montana ad venatum caprearum rangiferorum.que
quotannis profiscisi." Dr. Fleming, in his "History
of British Animals," published in Edinburgh in
1828, quoting this passage, remarks that "it would
lead to the belief that Reindeer once dwelt in
the mountains of Caithness, were it not extremely
probable that Red-deer were intended." Dr-
Hibbert also, who has written an elaborate critique
upon the subject,* was at first inclined to think
that Torfaeus had made a mistake here, and that
he should have stated " the Roe-deer and the
Red-deer," instead of "the Roe and the Reindeer."
But a learned Icelander, Jonas Jonseus, who in
1780 published an abstract and Latin translation
of the Saga,-\ has explained the manuscript sources

* ' On the Question of the Existence of the Eeindeer during the
Twelfth Century in Caithness,' in Brewster's Edinb. Journ. of Science,
New Series, vol. v. p. 50.

•f " Orkneyinga Saga sive Historia Orcadensium : Saga hins Helga
Magnusa Eyia Jarls, sive Yita Sancti Magni Insulai-um Comitis
Islandice et Latine," edidit J. Jonaeus, 4to, Hafniae, 1780, p. 384.

THE REINDEER. 73

from which Torfseus derived his account, and has
shown that the animals hunted by the jarls of
Orkney were in reality not the Hoe, but the Red-
deer, and the Reindeer, living at the same time in
that part of Scotland. The original passage runs
thus : " Thar var sithr Jarla naer hvert sumar at
fara yfer a Katanes oc tliar upp a merkr at veida
Rauddyri edr Hreina;" which is translated by Jona3iis
as follows: " Solebant Comites quavis fere estate in
Katenesum transire, ibique in desertis feras rubras et
ranyiferos venari " — the jarls of Orkney were in the
habit of crossing over to Caithness almost every
summer, and there hunting in the wilds the Red-
deer and the Reindeer."

Dr. Hibbert accepts this version of Jonseus, and
so also does Professor Brandt of St. Petersburgh.
In the English edition of Jon, A. Hjaltalin. and G.
Goudie (Edinb., 1873, p. 182), the words are trans-
lated : " Every summer the Earls were wont to go
over to Caithness and up into the forests to hunt
the Red-deer or the Reindeer." An eminent Ice-
landic scholar, however, Mr. Eirikr Magnusson of
Cambridge, is of opinion that neither version is
quite correct as regards the latter words, the literal
translation being : "It was the custom for the Earls
nearly every summer to go over into Caithness and
then up into the woods to hunt Red-deer or reins."

Mr. Magnusson further observes that the word
cdr has two meanings, equivalent to the Latin sive
and vel, and he therefore considers it uncertain
whether the proper reading is that they went to

74 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

hunt either Eed-deer or Reindeer, or whether, as
appears to him more likely, the Saga man was under
the impression that rauddyr and hrein were syno-
nymous terms.""

The author of the Saga, says Professor Boyd
Dawkins, must have been well acquainted with the
animal in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, and there
seems nothing improbable in the natural inference
that the animal they called reindeer undoubtedly
was one. The inclement hills of Caithness lie in the
same parallel of latitude as the south of Norway and
Sweden, in which the animal was living at the time ;
and its food, the brushwood, and especially the rein-
deer moss (Cladonia rangiferina) is still found exten-
sively over Scotland. Indeed, the abundance and
variety of lichens is specially noted as a peculiarity in
the Statistical Account of the parish of Wick, where
the reindeer moss is stated to grow to the height of
three or four inches among the heather.

The jarls of Orkney referred to (Rognvald and
Ha raid), according to Jonoeus, hunted in Caithness
in 1 1 59.

There is another point worth notice, as remarked
by Professor Boyd Dawkins. t "The Reindeer is men-
tioned in the Orkneyinga Saga along with the Red-
deer. At the present -day these animals occupy
different zoological provinces ; so that the fact of
their association in Caithness would show that in the
twelfth century the Red-deer had already appropriated

* Alston, " Fauna of Scotland" (Mammalia), p. 36 (1880).
t Popular Science Eevieiv, 1868, p. 43.

THE REINDEER.

75

the pastures of the Reindeer, which could not retreat
further on account of the sea, and was fast verging on
extinction. From Linnseus's time down to the
present day, even in Sweden and Norway, it has been
retreating further and farther north."

That it formerly existed in Orkney may be sur-
mised from the discovery of an antler in the island of
Rousay, where it was found embedded in peat some
distance below the surface. This horn, about three
feet in length, as we learn from Dr. J. A. Smith, was

AXTLER OF KEIKDEEK, ORKNEY.

brought from Orkney by Dr. Arthur Mitchell and
was presented by him to the Museum of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland, by whose permission it is
here figured.

It is true that Dr. Smith has some little hesitation
in regarding it as the horn of an animal indigenous
to the Orkneys, in consequence of a rumour to the
effect that a former proprietor of Rousay had im-
ported two or three Reindeer into that island.
He probably refers to Mr. Traill. Against this, how-

76 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

ever, it may be urged that the fact of the horn
having been found "deep down below the surface"
seems opposed to the theory of recent origin.

Several attempts have been made from time to
time to reintroduce the Reindeer in Great Britain,
but without much success. Sir Henry Liddell, who
made a tour through Sweden and Lapland, brought
five Reindeer to his estate in Northumberland,
where they bred, and for some time seemed likely
to thrive ; but they did not live long.* Fleming
refers to an experiment of the kind made by the
Duke of Athole ("Hist. British Animals," V 27),
and Scrope says the Earl of Fife introduced some
into the great forest of Marr in Aberdeen shire
(" Days of Deerstalking," p. 406). But they all
died, notwithstanding their being turned out on
the summits of the hills, which are covered with
dry moss, and on which it was supposed they would
be able to subsist. Some years previously to this,
a similar experiment had been tried in Orkney,
where Mr. Robert Traill, in 1816, turned out three
Reindeer, a male and two females, which he had im-
ported from Archangel. But they soon died, towards
the end of winter — from want, it was believed,
of their proper food, in addition to the supposed
unsuitability of the climate. It is stated by Messrs.
Baikie and Heddle t that "not being found to
answer the purposes intended, they were allowed to
die out."

* Consett's "Tour through Sweden," p. 152.
f " Hist, Nat. Orcadensis," p. 19.

77

THE WILD BOAR.

Sits scrofa.

THE Wild Boar is one of the oldest forest animals in
Britain, and one of which we find the earliest
mention in history. Characteristic figures of it
appear on ancient British coins,* and it is one of the
earliest animals figured in Celtic works of art.f
Britons, Romans, Saxons, and Normans all hunted it

* Evans's " British Coins," pis. vi., viii., xi., xii., and xiii.

f " Horae Ferales," p. 185, pi. xiv. ; Montellicr, " Memoires sur les
Bronzes Antiques," Paris, 1865; and Stephens' "Literature of the
Kymry," p. 250.

7 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

here in turns. Figures of the wild boar are found
on Roman monuments in England ; Pennant has
noticed one such at Ribehester, formerly a famous
Roman station. "It is supposed," he says, "to
have been an honorary inscription to Severus and
Caracalla, by the repetition of the address. It was
done by a vcxillatio of one of the legions quartered
here. A stone fixed in the wall of a small house
near the church gives room to suppose that it
belonged to the twentieth. The inscription is
LEG. XX. W. EEC., and on one side^ is the
sculpture of a Boar, an animal P have in two
other instances observed attendant on the inscrip-
tions made by the famous Legio vicessima valens
victrix."*

Nor should we omit to notice the Roman altar
which was found in 1749 near Stanhope, in the
bishopric of Durham, usually referred to as the Wear-
dale altar, and dedicated by a grateful Roman prefect
to the god Sylvanus for the capture of an enormous
Boar, which many of his predecessors had in vain
attempted to destroy. On this altar was discovered
the following inscription : — " Sylvano invicto sacrum
. . . . ob Aprum eximicc formce captum, quern multi
antecessores ejus pra'dari non potucrunt" A similar
altar, also dedicated to Sylvanus by the hunters of
Banna, was found at Birdoswald, in Northumber-
land, t

* " Tour to Alston Moor," 1801, p. 93. See also Horsley, " Bri-
tannia Romana, or the Roman Antiquities of Britain," folio, 1732.
f "Wright, " The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," pp. 207, 267.

THE WILD BOAR. 79

Aubrey lias given a minute account of a sculp-
tured representation of hunting the wild boar, over
a Norman doorway at Little Langford Church. This
bas-relief is figured in Hoare's "Modern Wiltshire."

After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the
short restoration of the Saxon monarchy, the sports ot
the field still maintained their ground, and hunting
and hawking were favourite pastimes. A painting on
a MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library,

V.'ILD BOAR HCNTING. FROil A. MS. OF THE NINTH CENTURY.

represents a Saxon chieftain, attended by his hunts-
man and a couple of hounds, pursuing wild boars
through a wood.*

In the " Colloquy of Alfric," a hunter of one of the
royal forests gives a curious account of his profession.
When asked how he practises his craft, he replies :
" I braid nets and set them in a convenient place, and
set on my hounds, that they may pursue the beasts of
chase, until they come unexpectedly to the nets, and
so become entangled in them, and I slay them in the
nets." He is then asked if he cannot hunt without

* Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes," p. 5, fig. i.

So EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

nets, to which he replies : " Yes, I pursue the wild
animals with swift hounds." He next enumerates
the different kinds of game which the Saxon hunter
usually hunted — " I take harts, and boars, and deerr
and roes, and sometimes hares." "Yesterday," he
continues, " I took two harts and a boar .... the
harts with nets, and I slew the boar with my weapon."
" How were you so hardy as to slay a boar ?" " My
hounds drove him to me, and I, there facing himr
suddenly struck him down." "You were very bold,
then." " A hunter must not be timid, foi; various-
wild beasts dwell in the woods."

The Welsh laws of Howel Dha (A.D. 940, fide
Spelman and Llwyd,) provided (cap. xvi. § 10) that
the wild boar should be hunted between the ninth
of November and the first of December, but later on,
in Edward II. 's time the season for hunting the
boar was between Christmas Day and Candlemas
Day (Feb. 2).

Edward the Confessor, whose disposition seems to
have been suited rather to the cloister than to the
throne, would join in no secular amusement but the
chase. According to William of Malmesbury,* he
took the greatest delight to follow a pack of swift
hounds in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with
his voice. He had a royal palace at Brill, or Brehull,
Bucks, to which he often repaired for the pleasure of
hunting in his forest of Bernwood. This forest, it is
said, was much infested by a wild boar, which was

* " Hist. Eeg. Anglorum," Lib. II., cap. xiii.

THE WILD BOAR. 81

at last slain by one Nigell, a huntsman, who pre-
sented the boar's head to the king ; and for a
reward the king gave him one hide of arable land,
called Derehyde, and a wood called Hulewood, with
the custody of the forest of Bern wood, to hold to him.
and his heirs by a horn, which is the charter of the
aforesaid forest. Upon this land Nigell built a lodge
or mansion-house, called Borestall, in memory of the
slain boar. For proof of this, in a large folio
vellum book, containing transcripts of charters and
evidences relating to this estate (supposed to have
been written in or before the reign of Henry VI.),
is a rude delineation of the site of Borestall House
and manor, and under it the figure of a man
presenting on his knees to the king the head of a
boar on the point of a sword, and the king returning
to him a coat of arms, argent, a fesse, gules, between
two crescents, and a horn, vert.

The same figure of a boar's head was carved on
the head of an old bedstead, now remaining in the
tower or lodge of that ancient house or castle, and
the arms are now to be seen in the windows, and in
other parts. And, what is of greatest authority, the
original horn, tipped at each end with silver gilt,
fitted with wreaths of leather to hang about the neck,
with an old brass seal ring, a plate of brass with the
sculpture of a horn, and several lesser plates of silver
gilt, with fleur-de-lys, has been all along preserved by
the lords of Borestal), under the name of " NigelTs
horn," and was in the year 1773 in the possession of
John Aubrey, Esq. (son and heir of Sir Thomas

32 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Aubrey, Bart.), to whom this estate descended
without alienation or forfeiture, from before the
Conquest, by several heirs female from the family of
Nigell to that of Aubrey."

At the Conquest, Inglewood Forest was held by
the Scots, from whom it was taken by the Conqueror,
and given to Ranulph de Meschines, who made a
survey of the whole country, and gave his followers
all the frontiers bordering on Scotland and North-
umberland, retaining to himself the central part
between the east and west mountains, described
as "a goodly great forest full of woods, red-deer
and fallow, wild boars, and all manner of wild
beasts."t

A forest law of William I. ordained (A.D. 1087)
that any one found guilty of killing a stag, roebuck,
or wild boar should be deprived of his eyes.

Henry I. was especially fond of boar-hunting,
as we learn from Holinshed, who stigmatizes it
as "a verie dangerous exercise;" and Edward I.
made several grants of land, which were held
by the serjeanty of keeping or providing boar-
hounds.

Robert de Avenel, who lived A.D. 1153 — 1 165, in.
granting the right of pasturage in Eskdale to the
monks of Melrose, reserved to himself the right to
pursue the wild boar, deer, and stag.J

A curious story referring to a wild boar hunt at

* " Archaeologia," vol. iii. pp. 3, 15 ; Kennett's "Paroch. Antiq.,"
and Blount's "Ancient Tenures," p. 243 (ed. 1815).
t Longstafie, " Durham before the Conquest."
J Morton, " Monastic Annals of Teviotdale," pp. 273, 274.

THE WILD BOAR. 83

this very period, in Eskdale, is related by Blount in
his "Ancient Tenures " (p. 557, ed. 1815). He says
that in the fifth year of Henry II. the lord of Ugle-
barnby, William de Bruce, the lord of Snaynton,
Ralph de Percy, and a gentleman freeholder named
Allotson, met on the i6th October to hunt the Wild
Boar in a certain wood called ' Eskdale-side,' belong-
ing to the Abbot of the monastery of Whitby, by
name Sedman.

" Then the aforesaid gentlemen did meet with
their hounds and boar-staves in the place aforesaid,
and there found a great wild boar ; and the hounds
did run him very hard near the chapel and hermitage
of Eskdale-side, where there was a monk of Whitby
who was a hermit. The boar, being so hard pursued,
took in at the chapel door, and there laid him down
and died immediately. The hermit shut the hounds
out of the chapel, and kept himself at his meditation
and prayers, the hounds standing at bay without.
The gentlemen in the thick of the wood, following
the cry of the hounds, carne to the hermitage, and
found the hounds round the chapel. Then came the
gentlemen to the door of the chapel, and called on
the hermit, who did open the door, and then they got
forth, and within lay the boar dead, at which the
gentlemen, in a fury because their hounds were put
out of their game, ran at the hermit with their boar-
staves, whereof he (subsequently) died. Then the
gentlemen, knowing and perceiving that he was in
peril of death, took sanctuary at Scarborough ; but
at that time the Abbot, being in great favour with

G

84 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the King, did remove them out of the sanctuary,
whereby they came in danger of the law, and not
privileged, but like to have the severity of the law,
which was death." But the hermit, being a holy man
and at the point of death, interceded for them. On
the loth December he senb for them and for the
Abbot, and in the presence of the latter forgave them
freely, begged that they might not suffer the penalty
which they had incurred, but perform, instead, a
penance, (fully described by Blount) which, he then
and there enjoined them ; and having uttered a
prayer, he sank back and died ?

Fitz Stephen, who wrote his description of London
in 1174 (see Introduction, p. 5), says that the
forest by which London was then surrounded was
frequented by Boars as well as various other wild
animals.

Edward III. hunted the Wild Boar in Oxfordshire,
as we may infer from the following translation of a.
record of the tenure of land in that county by the
service of finding the king in "boar-spears" when-
ever he carne to hunt there : —

"Anno 1339, I3th and I4th Edward III., an
inquisition was taken on the death of Joan, widow
of Thomas de Musgrave of Blechesdon, wherein
it appears that the said Joan held the moiety
of one messuage, and one carucate of land in
Blechesdon of the King ; by the service of carryino-
one boar-spear (unam hastam porci), price twopence,
to the King, whenever he should hunt in the park
of Cornbury ; and do the same as often as the King

THE WILD BOAR. 85

should so hunt, during his stay at his manor of
Wodestock."*

A quaint illustration of the mode of attacking a
Boar, copied from MS. of the fourteenth century,
which is preserved in the Douce collection, is given
by Strutt in his " Sports and Pastimes," and is here
reproduced.

S1'K.VRIXG A BOAR. FROM A MS. OP THE FOURTEENTH CEXTURX.

The Boar was a badge of Edward III., and might
therefore have been borne by any of his descendants ;
but Richard III. is the only one to whom its adoption
has been traced, t

In the Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,
eldest daughter of Edward IV. and consort of
Henry VII. , is the following entry under date 23rd
Nov. 1 502 : —

Itm. the same day to a servaunt of Sr. Gilbcrtcs Talbottes in
rcwardc for bringing a wylde bore to the Quene xs.

And in the "Household Book" kept by the steward
of Squire Kitson of Hengrave, county Suffolk,

* Kennet, " Parochial Antiquities," p. 450. By some unaccountable
mistake Kenuct translates unam hastam porci " one shield of brawn,"
and his view is adopted by Blount, " Ancient Tenures," p. 97.

The use of " Bore-speres" in Norfolk, A.D. 1 450-5 1, is referred to in
the " Fasten Letters," ed. Gairdner, vol. i. pp. 107, 271.

f " Archaeologia," vol. v. p. 17; Hawkins, "English Coins," p. 278.

G 2

86 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

beginning 1st October, 1572, we find under date
January, 1573, tins item: —

" To Miles Mosse for a bore which, he is charged to deliver every
Christemas as rent rated to the value of vs, for which he paid xxs,
and so there was allowed of that vs."

To judge by the remains of the animal which have
been found in various parts of the British Islands,
Wild Boars at one time must have completely over-
run the country. They were hunted in al^ the great
forests, and in ancient surveys they are often men-

SKULL OF A WILD BOAR. (i NAT. SIZE).*

tioned amongst the wild animals of the district sur-
veyed.

Thus Erdeswick, who began his survey of Staf-
fordshire about 1593, speaking of Chartley, says,
" The park is very large, and hath therein red deer,
fallow deer, wild beasts (i.e., wild cattle), and swine."
In the peat mosses of Northumberland and West-
moreland, skulls and bones of the Wild Boar have

* From a specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

THE WILD BOAR. 87

been frequently exhumed,* as well as in the peat at
Newbury, Berks, and Romsey, Hants, t

Leland tells us that at Blakeley, Lancashire, " wild
bores, bulls, and falcons bredde in times paste," and
there is close to Blakeley a place still called " Boar's
Green." Leland also speaks of " Wild Bores or
Swyne" on one of the Scilly Islands (Itin. second ed.
vii. 1 08) ; but the animals referred to were probably
domestic swine which had been introduced there,
and had run wild. At Great Grimsby an annual
quit rent of £ i 35. 46?. is still paid to the Corporation
of Grimsby in respect of a wood where formerly it
possessed the right of hunting the Wild Boar, a pay-
ment presumed to be an acquittal from the burden
of having to provide one of these animals for the
corporation to hunt. " The seal of the mayor of
"Great Grimsby bears the legend Sigillum majoritatis
de Grimesby, and contains a representation of a Boar
closely pursued by a dog, behind which is a hunts-
man winding his horn. This device is descriptive of
a privilege enjoyed by the mayor and burgesses of
Grimsby, of hunting in the woods of the adjacent
manor of Bradley, the lord of which was by his
tenure obliged to provide yearly a Wild Boar for
their diversion. These seals have long been laid
aside and others adopted, containing the arms of the
corporation: — azure, a chevron, sable, between three
boars' heads ; the shield surrounded by a festooned

* Some remarkably fine tusks of the Boar, found in Cresswell
Moss, are preserved at Middleton Hall, near Wooler, the seat of Mr.
G. H. Hughes.

f Collet, "Phil. Trans.," 1757, p. 112.

88 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

border, gules, with a narrow edge, vert. Above are
two oak-branches crossed, proper, embowering an
escallop shell, azure."*

In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons
are preserved two of the inferior incisors, and the
right and left lower canines of a Wild Boar which,
with a quantity of hazel nuts, were transmitted to
John Hunter in May, '1787, by Mr. Jones, of
Abingdon, accompanied by a letter in the following
terms : —

" The inner jaw of a Wild Boar or some other ani-
mal, and the nuts which I have taken the liberty to
enclose in the box, were a few days since found about
ten feet under ground by a labourer as he was dig-
ging peat or turf. Several single tusks have been
found, and they were all worn in the manner you
will observe these to be at the extremities ; and the
quantity of nuts was very considerable : they seemed
to lay in a layer of white sand between the strata of
peat. From whence could they come ? Is it possible
they could remain there ever since the deluge ?

(Signed) W. JONES.

"Abingdon, Berks.. May 23rd, 1787."

" The layer of sand and nuts extended upwards of
eighteen feet horizontally. "

In the same Museum, specimen No. 1079, is
the left inferior tusk of a Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

* Allen, "Hist. Co. Lincoln" (1830), vol. ii. p. 241.

THE WILD BOAR. 89

exhumed, eight or ten feet from the surface, out of
the peat meadows, half a mile west of Newbury in
Berkshire, presented by Mr. Alexander, surgeon,
Newbury.

A good account of this locality, under the name of
the " Peatpit near Newbury," is contained in a letter
dated February 24, 1757, from Dr. John Collet to
the Bishop of Ossory, which is printed in the " Philo-
sophical Transactions" for 1757 (p. 109).

Many localities seem to indicate by their name
the former haunts of this once common animal.
Brancepeth Castle, Durham, appears to have derived
its name (Bran's path), from a noted Boar which
infested that neighbourhood. Swindon, Swinford,
Swinfield, and Swindale ;* " Wild Boar Fell " in
Westmoreland, particularly described by Pennant, t
and "Wild Boar Clough" in Cheshire, are all names
suggestive of the ancient haunts of this animal. So
also are Hogmer (Hants), Eversham and Everley,
(from eofor, a boar), Boarhunt (Hants), and Boars-
ford (Hereford).

Prior to the introduction of Christianity into
Scotland, the country by which St. Andrews is
surrounded wore the aspect of a forest, in which a
few patches of cultivated ground seem to have been
interspersed. In this forest the hog or swine in its
wild state abounded ; and from this circumstance it
was denominated by the Picts, who at that period

* Some interesting notes on the names of places commencing with
*' Swin" will be found in The Antiquary, vol. i. pp. 47, 94, 139, 234,
and vol. ii. p. 84. f " Torn- to Alston Moor," p. 134.

90 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

occupied the east coast of Scotland, Macros — mite in
their language, which was the Celtic or Gaelic, signi-
fying a sow or boar, and ros a peninsula or promon-
tory. The correctness of this derivation is said to be
confirmed by the fact that near the extremity of the
parish the village of Boarhills still retains the
original name of the district, but translated into the
modern language. Boethius, however, states (fol.
272) that the land in question was given to the See
of St. Andrews by Alexander the First about 1124,
and was named "the Boar's chase" (cursus apri) in
consequence of an enormous Boar, which had done
great damage in the neighbourhood, having been
pursued and eventually killed there.* He further
adds that its huge tusks, measuring twelve inches
long, and three in their greatest width, were pre-
served as trophies, and chained to the high altar of
St. Andrews. t His words are : — " Auxit [Alexander]
quoque facilitates sacrce cedis D. Andrea?, cum aliis
quibusdam prcediis, turn eo agro cui nomen est 'Apri
cursus,' ab apro immensi magniludinis, qui edita homi-
num et pecorum ingenti strage, scepe nequicquam a
venatoribus, magno ipsorum periculo, petitus, tandem
ab armata multitudine invasus, per hunc agrum pro-
fugiens confossus est." He adds -.—"Extant immanis
hujus bellua indicia, denies, quos maxillis cxsertos
habent, admirandce magnitudmis longitudinis enim

* See also Spotswood, " Hist. Church of Scotland" (1665), p. 134;
and Martine, "Keliquiaa Divi Andrese" (1797), p. 94.

t " New Statist. Acct. Scotland," vol. k. p. 449. The arms of tho
city of St. Andrews represent a boar leaning against a tree.

THE WILD BOAR. 91

sunt 1 6 diyitoruni et latitudinis 4, relegati catenulis ad
cellas Dlvi Andrew"*

Reference to a Boar-hunt in Scotland at an earlier
date than this, however, is to be found in a Latin
MS. history of the Gordon family, dated 1545,
compiled from older MSS. by John Ferrarius, of
Piedmont, a monk in the Abbey of Kinloss, Moray-
shire, who also wrote a Supplement to the work of
Boethius. A copy of the MS. referred to made for Sir
Robert Gordon in 1613 and entitled " Historian com-
pendium de origine et encremento Gordonicv families in
Scotia, apud Kinloss, anno 1545," is preserved in the
Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and from this we
learn that amongst those who assisted Malcom III.
of Scotland against the English about the year 1057
was one Gordon, who some time previously had slain
a fierce Boar which had committed great depreda-
tions in the neighbourhood of the Forest of Huntly.
For this act of prowess he was rewarded by the
King, who bestowed upon him the lands of Gordon
and Huntly, and sanctioned his carrying on his
banner three boars' heads, or, in a field, azure. In
the English translation of this work, from which
Pennant quoted (vide antea, p. 19), the animal slain
by Gordon is called a Bear, but this, as we have
already shown (p. 24), was the Scottish pronunciation
of Boar, and reference to the Latin original shows
that the animal in question was unmistakably a Boar,

* This must have been a splendid pair of tusks. The Roman digit,
it should be remembered, was the sixteenth part of a foot ; and these
tusks were doubtless measured along the outside curve.

92 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

immanent aprum, and that the heads upon the
banner were likewise boars' heads — tria aprorum
capita aurea.

In the Highlands, the existence of the Wild Boar
is generally and familiarly remembered. Its names —
Fiadh-Chullach (genericallythe wild hog), Fiadh-Thorc
(the Sanglier or Wild Boar), Fiadh Mhuc (the Wild
Sow) — are still well known, and traces of its times
and locality are retained in tradition, ancient poetry,
and the names of many places denominated from its
haunts, as Slochd-Tuirc, the boar's den, Druim-an-
Tuirc, the boar's ridge, and Beannan Tuirc, the boar's
mountain.*

On the west side of Benin -glo, Perthshire, are two
places called " Carn-torey " and " Coire-torey " — i.e.,
the hill and the hollow of Boars ; in the same county
is the Boar's Loch (Loch-an-tuirc).f Traces of
this animal have been found in Gordon parish,
Berwickshire, where land is said to have been
granted by William the Conqueror to one who
killed a certain Wild Boar which infested the
district.];

In Ireland swine existed, both in a wild and
domesticated state, from the very earliest times, and
have ever since contributed largely to the wealth of
the people. The Wild Boar (Tore fiadhairi) abounded
in the woods, which formerly covered a large portion
of the country, and fed upon the acorns and beech-

* Stuart, " Lays of the Deer Forest," ii. p. 217.
t " Old Statist. Acct. Scotland," vol. ii. p. 478.
J Ibid., vol. viii. p. 53.

THE WILD BOAK. 93

mast ; hence the frequent mention in the ancient
annals of Ireland, of the failure of these crops, as
well as the years in which they abounded.*

The earliest account known of the wild animals of
Ireland is to be found in a tract De mirabilibus Sacrce
Scriptura', written by an Irish ecclesiastic named
Augustine about the middle of the 7th century, and
amongst other ferce natures, Wild Boars (sylvaticos
porcos) are especially mentioned.!

Among the restrictions put upon one of the kings
of Ulster in the Leabhar na g-Ceart, or " Book of the
Rights and Privileges of the Kings of Erin," was that
he was not to go into the Wild Boar's hunt, or to be
seen to attack it alone. Giraldus Cambrensis, in his
Topographic Hibernice, says, "In no part of the world
have I seen such an abundance of boars and forest
hogs. They are, however, small, misshapen, wary,
no less degenerated by their ferocity and venomous-
ness than by the formation of their bodies."

As regards their size, the statement of Giraldus has
been confirmed by palaeontologists. Compared with
veritable specimens of the ancient Wild Boar of
Northern Europe, as found in the peat mosses of
Scandinavia, especially in Zeeland, the Irish Wild
Boar appears to have been a very diminutive animal.
(Wilde,/, c. ) Dr. Seoul er asserts that they continued

* Wilde, " Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.," vol. vii. p. 208.

t The brief allusion made in this tract to the fauna of Ireland, as
quoted by Reeves ("Proc. Roy. Irish Acad." 1861) is as follows: —
" Qnis cnim, verli gratia, lupos, cervos, et sylvaticos porcos et vulpcs,
taxones ct lepuscnlos ct sesquivolos in Hibcrniam dcvcncrct." This is
one of the very few sources of information quoted in this volume
which we have been unable to examine and verify.

94 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

to be plentiful in Ireland down to the seventeenth
century, but the exact date of their extinction he
was unable to ascertain.""

Many places in Ireland are called after the Wild
Boar, as Sliabh-na-muice in Tipperary ; Gleann-na-
muice-duibhe near Newry ; Ceann-tuirc in the Co.
Cork. Muckross and Tore, also, at Killarney, are de-
rived from the same root. The word Muckalagh
enters largely into Irish topographical names, and
signifies a place where pigs feed — probably on acorns.
(Wilde, I.e.}

Tusks of Wild Boars, dug up in Ireland, according
to Thompson, are often of goodly dimensions. t

Several attempts have been made to reintroduce
these animals for the purpose of hunting, but, from
various causes, none of the experiments proved very
successful. In some instances they throve well and
increased, but the opposition of those whose crops
they damaged was fatal to their existence for any
length of time. Charles I. imported some from
France,^ an(^ turned them out in the New Forest,
where, according to Aubrey, " they much encreased,
and became terrible to the travellers." However,
" in the civill warres," he says, " they were destroyed,

* " Journ. Geol. Soc. Dublin," vol. i. p. 226. See also Wilde,
" Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.," vol. vii. p. 208.

f " Nat. Hist. Ireland," vol. iv. p. 36.

J Gilpin says " from Germany." He confirms Aubrey's statement
as to their increase in the New Forest, and adds that " there is found
there at this day (1791) a breed of hogs, commonly called forest pigs,
which are very different from the usual Hampshire breed, and have
about them several of the characteristic marks of the Wild Boar." —
Forest Scenery, vol. ii. pp. 168-169 (ed. Lauder).

THE WILD BOAR. 95

but they have tainted all the breed of the pigges ot
the neighbouring partes, which are of their colour; a
kind of soot colour."* This was written in 1689.
Evelyn, in a note to this passage, observes : " There
were Wild Boars in a forest in Essex formerly. I
sent a Portugal boar and sow to Wotton in Surrey,
which greatly increased ; but they digged the earth
so up, and did such spoyle, that the country
would not endure it : but they made incomparable
bacon."

At a later period, as recorded by Gilbert White,
General Howe turned out some German Wild Boars
in the forests of Wolmer and Alice Holt, of which
he had a grant from the Crown ; but, as White
says, " the country rose upon them and destroyed
them."t

The late Earl of Fife, who tried many experiments
in introducing different animals into the Forest of
Marr, turned out some Wild Boars by the advice
of the Margrave of Anspach, who was at Marr
Lodge on a visit ; but the experiment in this case
did not answer, for want of acorns, their principal

Forty years ago, Mr. Drax, of Charborough Park,
Dorsetshire, made a similar experiment. Two pairs,
one from Russia the other from France, were originally
turned out in the woods at Charboro', and after remain-
ing there several years they, or their descendants,

* Aubrey, "Nat. Hist. Wilts," p. 59.

f " Nat. Hist, of Selborne," Letter ix. to Pennant.

t Serope's " Art of Deer Stalking," p. 406.

96 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

were removed to Morden, a few miles distant.
The Russian breed was wilder and more ferocious
than the French. The litters, which averaged from
10 to 12, were not interfered with, but ran wild with
their parents. They were not hunted but caught
in nets or shot. Writing to a mutual friend in
September, 1879, Mr. Drax says : "I fenced them in
with a wood paling in the wood where I built the
present tower, and used to shoot them. The latter
part of the time I kept them at Morden Park, and
bred a lot of them, feeding them on turnips and corn.
They were savage and troublesome, however, to keep
within bounds, and I therefore killed them. They
were good eating when fed upon corn."

Scott, in his " British Field Sports," the second
edition of which was published in 1820, says, "Several
Wild Boars of this accidental kind have flourished
within my memory ; in particular two in the woods
between Mersey Island and Colchester, in Essex,
which many years since were the terror of that
neighbourhood for a considerable time, and stood
many a gallant hunt." i

In olden times the enclosure in which the Boars
used to be fattened was termed a "Boar-frank."
Shakespeare uses the word in the Second Part of
Henry IV." :

" Doth the old boar feed in the old frank ?"

And in one of the Household Books of Lord William
Howard, of Naworth Castle, Cumberland, under date
Sept. 25, 1622, is an entry of payment

" To Rob. Burthom for mending a boar-frank .... iiijd."

THE WILD BOAR. 97

These " boar-franks," it would seem, were at one
time not uncommon in parts of Suffolk. The
anonymous author of the " History and Antiquities
of the Ancient Villa of Wheatfield in the County
of Suffolk" (first printed in 4to in 1758, and re-
published in the second volume of Dodsley's
"Fugitive Pieces," pp. 77-1-15), referring to the
state of the parish and the manners and pursuits
of the inhabitants, remarks : — " The prevailing taste
runs much upon building temples to Ctoacina and
menageries for Wild Boars ; structures in them-
selves beautiful, but at the expense of that noble
Roman Way, the Via Icenorum, that leads through
the parish, which they narrow and obumbrate."

At Chartley Park, Staffordshire — where, three
hundred years ago, as we learn from Erdeswick, wild
swine roamed at large — the present Earl Ferrers
proposed to reint reduce these animals, having been
presented, with a boar by Mr. W. J. Evelyn, of
'VVotton House, near Dorking, and with a sow by
Mr. F. H. Salvin, of Whitmoor House, near Guild
ford. The proposed experiment, however, failed, for
the boar died on the road, from the heat of the
weather, and the sow not long afterwards, from an
accident.

In Derbyshire a similar attempt at reintroduction
was made by the late Sir Francis Darwin, to whose
son, Mr. E. L. Darwin, we are indebted for the
following graphic account of the experiment : —

"My father (the late Sir Francis Darwin) pos-
sessed an estate in Derbyshire, which consisted of

4)8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

the wildest and most picturesque land, a great part
of which was naturally wooded, and another part
artificially planted with larch, Scotch fir, and spruce.
About the year 1826 he received a present from
the late Sir William Ingilby of a German Boar,
and from Mr. Michaelis two Alpine boars and two
sows. The German boar was a large, powerful
animal, of a tawny red colour, and the others were
a dusky black. It was my father's intention to
turn them all out in the woods, and let them have
the free run of about two hundred acres ; but the
red boar was found to be so utterly irreclaimable
through his ferocity, that, so far as he was concerned,
the idea was given up, and the black boars and sows
only were allowed their liberty. A cross of the two
breeds was, however, determined on, and in sub-
sequent years the sows produced both red and black
progeny.

" Although most formidable-looking creatures, the
Alpine boars were perfectly harmless, unless inten-
tionally irritated, and I must allow that their tempers
were occasionally tried by myself amongst others,
when they could be teased from some safe spot.
On such occasions they would stand with one foot
much advanced, and the head drawn back, and the
attitude was emphasized by a ferocious ' chopping'
of the jaws, till the foam used to fall on the ground,
and the great formidable tusks were alarmingly
displayed. I only wonder now why the numerous
blows on the head from large stones, which were a
part of the performance, were never revenged when

THE WILD BOAR. 99

the recipient met me unexpectedly and no refuge
was near. Brought up in this wild country, I
carried a gun when very young, and as I never went
into the woods without one, I suppose I felt com-
paratively safe. I recollect that one of our grooms,
when making a short cut through a fern bed which
existed on one part of the property, was unexpectedly
charged by a sow, but he escaped by the hardest
running. From her manner it was evident that she
had young ones, and my father, myself, and the
groom and keeper, went up the same afternoon — a
Sunday it was — and we discovered a nest in the
fern -bed, but could not go nearer than a few yards,
as the sow stood at the entrance and forbade any
further advance. The young pigs were seen a week,
or two afterwards, and they were all red-coloured,
but with a few black up-and-down stripes. The two
old boars gradually got to know my father, and
they would take bread from his hand, and I have
seen them rub their frothy snouts against his old
shooting-jacket pocket when he has been sitting
down, as if asking to be fed — which no doubt was
their meaning.

" At one time there were a good many vipers and
snakes on the property, but they gradually dis-
appeared ; and my father, attributing this to the
presence of the boars, succeeded once in catching a
full-grown viper, and, having enticed one of the
boars into a shed, threw the viper down close to
him. The viper, instead of attempting to escape,
at once came to "attention," and the boar, after a

H

ioo EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

preliminary " chop " or two, dashed at it. The
viper seemed to strike him two or three times on
the snout, but the boar, putting one foot on him,
pulled him to pieces in a few seconds, and certainly
did not suffer any subsequent inconvenience from
the viper's attacks. Jack and Dick (the two black
boars) died natural deaths, and their successors de-
generated in size, and seemed gradually to become
tame and spiritless ; they have been extinct for
forty years or so. The old red boar lived for some
years confined in a large yard, and at enmity with
everyone ; a more untam cable animal there could
not be. He came to an undignified end, being fed
and killed like his tame brethren. After death he
was skinned and stuffed, and when I last saw him
he was in the lumber room at the Priory, near
Derby, and, like the celebrated wolf killed by the
deerhound Gelert, he was ''tremendous still in
death." The head of one of his grandsons is or was
in the Derby Museum, and a formidaKfe -looking
object it is, with immense tusks. This descendant
died from eating a poisoned rat which had been
thoughtlessly thrown to him.

" The very last of the Sydnope boars was shot in
the year 1837, and the fact was recorded in verse,
by one of the party, very humorously and success-
fully."

The exact date of the extinction of the Wild Boar
in Britain is uncertain.

There were Wild Boars in Durham in 1531-33.
Tn the Accounts of the Bursar of the Monastery of

7 HE WILD BOAR. 101

Durham for these years are several entries of pay-
ments made for bringing in Wild Boars ; thus : —

1531. 28. Marcii. Et Chrislifcro Richardson, i aper, 6s. Sd.
1 533. Et in uno apro empto de Thoma Cottijsfurth, 6s.
Etin uno apro empto de Thoma Chepman, us.

The price doubtless varying with the size and con-
dition of the animal.

When Henry VIII. visited Wulf hall, Savernake,
the residence of the Seymours, in 1539 and 1543,
there were Wild Boars in the adjoining forest, as we
learn from the "Household Book" of Edward Sey-
mour, Earl of Hertford, some extracts of which have
been printed in the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine
for June, 1875 (pp. 171-177).* The following
entries occur : —

" Paid to Morse and Grammatts for helpyng to take the

wylde swyne in the forest 4d.

And for 8 hempen halters to bynd their legs 4d.

And for drink for them that helped to take them . . . 4d.

Again : —

To Edmuud Coke and Wm. Morse and others for

sekyng wilde swyne in the forest 2 days . . . 2s. 6d.

To Thomas Christopher for his costes when he caryed
the two wilde bores to the Court to my Lord
att Wynsor, All-hallowen even 3». 4d.

In 1617, it was still to be found in Lancashire ;
for when James I. in that year visited Sir Richard
Hoghton, at Hoghton Tower, near Whalley, one of
the dishes with which the royal banquet was more
than once supplied was " Wild-boar pye.' "t

* An interesting article on Savernake Forest, by the Rev. Canon
Jackson, will be found in tho same Magazine for August, 1880
(pp. 26-44).

f Nicholls, "Progresses, &c., of James I.," vol. in. p. 4°2.

H 2

102 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

In the same year the King hunted the Boar at
Windsor. Adam Newton, in a letter to Sir Thomas
Puckering, Bart., dated Deptford, Sept. 28, 1617,
writes: "I was at Hampton Court on Sunday
last, where the Court was indeed very full ; King,
Queen and Prince all residing there for the time.
The King and Prince, after their ccming from
Theobalds this day sennight, went to Windsor
to the hunting of the Wild Boar, and came back on
Saturday."*

In Westmoreland the last Wild Boar is said to
have been killed near Staveley by a man named
Gilpin,f the country round being at that time all
forest and fell. Close to the spot indicated is an inn,
still called " Wild Boar Inn," while the bridge over
the beck is known as "Gilpin's Bridge." A tradition of
the former existence of the Wild Boar in this neigh-
bourhood is still current, but no date can now be
assigned for the destruction of the last of its race.
It is referred to approximately as " about 200 years
ago," which carries us back to the reign of Charles II.,
and this is the latest date at which I have been able
to find any mention of this animal in a wild
state in England. An old "Account Book of the
Steward of the Manor of (/hartley : Praeses. Com.
Ferrers," contains the following entry : —

" 1683. — Feb. Pd. the cooper for a paile for ye wild swine 0-2-0 "

This shows that the Wild Boar was not extinct in

* " The Court and Times of James I.," vol. ii. p. 34.

f It appears by an Inquisition 20 Eliz., that in this year William
Gilpin held the manor of Over Staveley (see Nicholson, " Hist, and
Antiq. Westm. and Cumberl.," vol. i. p. 139).

THE WILD BOAR.

103

England so early as has been supposed — that is,
previously to Charles I. 'a attempt to reintroduce
it into the New Forest.

Of the few English writers who have described the
hunting of the Wild Boar as formerly practised in
England, George Turbervile, a gentleman of Dorset -

TRACKING A \VILD BOAR. SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

shire, has furnished the best account in his " Booke
of Hunting," published in 1575, a second edition of
which appeared in 1 6 1 1 . In this work, which is
now very rare, and of which we possess an im-
perfect copy, a long account is given of the " Wyld
Bore" and its ways. " Although it ought not," he

io4 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

says, "to be counted among the beasts of venery
which are chaseable with hounds, for he is the
proper prey of a mastiffe and such like dogs, for
as much as he is a heavy beast and of great force,
trusting and asseying himselfe in his tuskes and his
strength, and therefore will not so lightly flee nor make
chase before hounds. So that you cannot (by hunting
of the Bore) know ye goodnesse or swiftness of them,
and there withall to confesse a truth, I think it a
great pitie to hunte (with a good keriell of hounds) at
such chases : and that for such reasons and considera-
tions as followe.

" First, he is the onely beast which can dispatch a
hound at one blow, for though other beasts do bite,
snatch, teare, or rend your houndes, yet there is
hope of remedie if they be well attended ; but if a
Bore do once strike your hounde, and light betweene
the foure quarters of him, you shall hardly see
him escape ; and therewithall this subtil tie he hath,
that if he be run with a good kenell of hounds,
which he perceiveth holde in rounde and followe him
harde, he will flee into the strongest thicket that he
can finde, to the end he may kill them at his leisure
one after another, the which I have seene by experience
oftentimes. And amongst others, I saw once a
Bore chased and hunted with fiftie good hounds
at the least, and when he saw that they were
all in full crie and helde in round together, he
turned heade upon them, and thrust amiddest
the thickest of them in such sorte that he slew
sometimes sixe or seaveii in [this] manner in the

THE WILD BOAR. 105

twinkling, of an eye: and of the fiftie houndes
there went not twelve sounde and alive to their
masters houses.

" Againe, if a kennell of houndes be once used to
hunte a Bore, they will become lyther, and will never
willingly hunte fleeing chases againe. Forasmuch as
they are (by him) accustomed to hunte with more
ease and to find great scent. For a Bore is a beast
of a very hot scent, and that is contrary to light
fleeing chases which are hunted with more paine to
the hound, and yet therwith do not leave so great
scent. And for these causes, whosoever meaneth to
have good hounds for an. Hart, Hare, or Row-deare,
let him not use them to hunt the Bore : but since
men are of sundry opinions, and love to hunte such
chases as lie moste commodiously aboute their dwell-
ing places, 1 will here describe the propertie of the
Bore and how they may hunt him, and the manner
of killing him either with the sword or bore-speare,
as you shall also see it set out in portray ture hereafter
in his place."

Then follows a chapter " of the nature and subtiltie
of the Bore" wherein we are told that "the Bore is
of this nature, that when his dame doth pigge
him, he hath as many teeth as ever he will have
whiles he liveth, neither will their teeth any
way multiply or encrease but onely in greatnesse
^ind length. Amongst the rest they have foure.
which (with the Frenchmen) are called defense*,
and we call them tuskes or tusches, whereof the
two highest do not liurte when he striketh, but

io6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

serve onely to whet the other two lowest : but with
those lower tuskes, they stryke marvellously and kill
oftentimes."

There is a difference between the wild and tame
swine which, as may be supposed, did not escape
the notice of huntsmen in olden times, when the
pursuits of the chase alone engrossed their most
immediate attention. The information which they
have left us on this and many other points is all
the more valuable, as we have no longer the means
of forming those comparisons which, from the expe-
rience of their lives, they were able to record with
accuracy.

" The difference between the wild swine and our
hogs," says Turbervile, " is great, and that in sundry
respects. First they are commonly blacke, or grisled, or
streaked with blacke, whereas ours[are white, sanded,
and of all coloures. Therewithal the wyld sywne in
their gate do always set the hinder foote within the
fore foote, or very neare, and stay themselves more upon
the toe than upon the heele, shutting theirclaws before
close : and commonly they strike their gards (which are
their dew clawes) upon the ground, the which sway out-
wards : and the sides of their hoofs do cut and pare
the ground, the which our swine do not, for they
spread and open their fore clawes leaving the ground
between them : and they be commonly round and
worne, leaning and staying more upon the heele, than
upon the toe. Againe, they set not their hinder foote
within their fore foote, and their gards fall straight
upon the ground, and never shoyle or leane outwards :

THE WILD BOAR. 107

and they do beat down and soile the ground and cut
it not. Also the soale of their feete is fleshy, and
maketh no plaine print upon the ground as the wild
swine do. There is likewise great difference in their
rowtings : for a wild swine doth rowt deeper, because
his snout is longer : and when they come into corne
fieldes they follow a furrow, rowting and worming all
along by some balke untill they come to the end. But
tame swine rowte here and there all about the field,
and never followe their rowting as the wild swine do.
Likewise you may know them by the difference in
their feedings in corne growne : for the wild swine
beare downe the corne rounde about them, in one
certaine place, and tame swine feede scattering here
and there."

" The Wild Boar," says Turbervile, " has only one
litter in the year."

In regard to the mode of hunting this animal as
formerly practised in England, the plan seems to
have been to follow it with relays of hounds until
brought to bay, and then to rush in on foot or on
horseback, and despatch it with sword or spear.
Turbervile says : — " If he stand at bay, the hunts-
men must ryde in unto him as secretly as they can
without much noyse, and when they be neare him,
let them cast round about the place where he
standeth, and run upon him all at once, and it shall
be hard if they give him not one skotch with a
sword or some wound with a bore-speare : and let
them not strike lowe, for then they shall commonly
hit him on the snoute, because he watcheth to take

loS EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

all blowes upon his tuskes or thereabouts. But let
them lift up their hands high and strike right
clowne ; and let them beware that they strike not
towards their horses but that other way ; for on that
side that a Bore feeleth himself hurte, he turneth head
strayght waies whereby he might the sooner hurt or
kill their horses if they stroke towards them. And .
if they lie in the plaine, then let them cast a cloake
about their horses, and they maye the better ride
about the Bore, and strike at him as they passe ;
but stay not long in a place.

"It is a certaine thing experimented and found
true, that if you hang belles upon collers about your
houndes necks, a Bore will not so soone strike at
them, but flee end waies before them, and seldome
stand at bay."

In France, where the sport of Wild Boar hunting is
still kept up in the olden style, different names are
given to the animal at different ages. While quite
young, when it is striped, it is called la livree, and
marcassin ; in the autumn, when the stripes disap-
pear and it assumes a reddish brown colour, it is
termed bete rousse and bete de Compaq nie (from
keeping with the herd), names which are retained
until two years old ; from two to three years old it
is called ragot, a word the etymology of which is
unknown ; * from three to four, sanglier a son tiers-an,
or simply tiers an ; from four to five, quartanier ;
from five to six, quintanicr and vieux sanglier. After
this age, when both sexes become quite grey, the ears,

* See Holland, " Faune Populairj de la France," p. 75.

THE WILD BOAR. 109

legs, and tail only remaining black, it is called grand
vieux sanglier and solitaire.

The winter coat of the Wild Boar is quite different
to that which he wears in summer. The entire body in
winter is clothed with down, over which comes a thick
coat of coarse hair, forming a stiff mane of long bristles
down the neck and shoulders. This is all shed as
the summer approaches, when, with a smooth coat and
no bristles, he looks quite a different animal. To see
him at his best it is needless to say he should be
viewed in winter. His appearance is then extremely
picturesque, with his short round black ears standing

GROUP OF WILD BOARS.*

erect through his stiff grey mane ; high shoulders,
drooping towards the tail ; his black legs almost as
fine as those of a deer, denoting speed and activity ;
and a tail which he nervously twitches while champ-
ing his tusks and darting "mischief" in every look
of his small twinkling eyes.

The tail, it should be observed, is never curled, as
frequently, though erroneously, rep resented in pictures,

* From a carved horn in possession of the author.

i ro EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

but is perfectly straight, with a tuft at the end, not
unlike that of the bison, and is carried erect when
running.

Mr. F. H. Salvin, to whom reference has been
already made, kept a Wild Boar for six or seven years,
which was given him by H.H. the Maharajah
Dhuleep Singh, and came originally from Syria. This
animal, a female, became remarkably tame, and would
follow her owner about like a dog. In Land and
Water of January 12, 1867, he gave an interesting
account of her, which is too long to be quoted here
in extenso, but from which we extract the following
particulars : —

" She follows me almost daily in my walks like a
dog, to the great astonishment of strangers. Of
course I only take her out when the crops are too low
to be injured ; during the spring and summer months
I merely take her for a run in the park, where she
can do no harm. No dog can be more obedient to
the whistle than she is. In the heat of summer she
is fond of a swim, and has followed me in a boat to
a great distance. I always have her belled, to
hear where she is in the woods, and the bell, which
is a good sheep's bell, is fastened round her neck with
a strap and buckle. This was of use last autumn, for
upon one occasion I lost her for a night or two by her
remaining behind with her young ones amongst the
acorns ; and when I found her by the bell's sound, I
was amused to see the immense quantity of rushes
w^hich she had collected in. a snug dry spot for a lair
for herself and family.

THE WILD BOAR.

in

Her leaping powers are extraordinary, over water
or timber. On one occasion she cleared some palings
three feet ten inches in height. As she had young
only in the summer time, I suspect they breed but
once a year in the wild state."

This confirms the statement of Turbervile to the
effect that the Wild Boar produces only one litter
in the year.

It was formerly the custom on Christmas Day at
Queen's College, Oxford (whether still observed or
not, we cannot say), to bring into hall a boar's head

BOAR IX EAST (HEAP.

with great ceremony and song, as described by
Aubrey in one of his MSS. preserved in the Ash-
molean Museum. Tradition represents this usage of
Queen's as a commemoration of an act of valour per-
formed by a student of that college, who, while walk-
ing in the neighbouring forest of Shotover, and read-
ing Aristotle, was suddenly attacked by a wild boar.
The furious beast came open-mouthed upon the

ii2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS,

youth, who, however, very courageously and with a
happy presence of mind, is said to have " rammed in
the volume and cried Grcecum est," fairly choking the
savage with the sage.*

We can scarcely dip into the history of the Wild
Boar in days gone by without being reminded of the
" Boar's Head" in Eastcheap, so happily referred to
by Shakespeare, and so pleasantly descanted on by
Goldsmith in his "Reverie at the Boar's Head
Tavern ;" and we are tempted to give an illus-
tration of this famous sign, in reduced facsimile
from the engraving in Pennant's "London." That
author thus alludes to it: — "A little higher up on
the left hand is Eastcheap, immortalized by Shake-
speare as the place of rendezvous of Sir John
Falstaff and his merry companions. Here stood
the Boars Head tavern ; the site is now covered
with modern houses, but in the front one is still
preserved the memory of the sign, the Boar's Head
cut in stone. Notwithstanding the house is gone,
we shall laugh at the humour of the jovial knight,
his hostess, Bardolph, and Pistol, as long as the
descriptive pages of our great dramatic writer exist
in our entertained imagination."

Hone, in his " Year Book," gives a brief account
of a visit which he paid to this memorable hostelry.
" I could not," he says, " omit a sight of this remark-
able place ; but upon my approach to Eastcheap, the
inhabitants were fled, the house shut up, and instead
of an half timber building, with one story projecting

* Wade's " Walks in Oxford," 1817, vol. i. p. 167.

THE WILD BOAR. 113

over the other, as I expected, the edifice was modern,
with a date in the front of 1668. I immediately
concluded that the old house was burnt down by
the great fire." Goldsmith's latest editor, Colonel
Cunningham, in a note to the essay above referred
to, assures us that this was so.

Hone, however, continued his researches. On
each side of the doorway he observed " a vine-
branch carved in wood, rising more than three feet
from the ground, loaded with leaves and clusters ;
and on the top of each a little Falstaff, eight inches
high, in the dress of his day." This induced him to
make further inquiry, when he ascertained that the
place had been sold by auction three week's before,
at Garraway's coffee-house ;* that the purchaser was
a stranger, and had the keys ; and that a sight of
the premises could not be obtained. " There is
nothing," he says, " more difficult than to find out
a curiosity which depends upon others, and which
nobody regards. With some trouble," he continues,
" I procured a sight of the back buildings. I found
them in that ancient state which convinced me that
tradition, Shakespeare and Goldsmith, were right ;
and could I have gained admission into the premises
of mine hostess, Mistress Quickly, I should certainly
have drank a cup of sack in memory of the bulky
knight. "

There was another and more ancient hostelry

* The date of his visit is not stated, but the date of his Preface to
" The Year Book," in which his account is printed (under "December 3").
is January, 1832.

1 14 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

called the "Boar's Head," though less celebrated
than the one just mentioned. It was situate in
Southwark, and was standing in Henry the Sixth's
time. It is referred to in the " Paston Letters," in a
letter from Henry Wyndesore to John Paston, dated
August 27, 1458. The writer says, — "Please you
to remembre my maistre at your best leiser, wheder
his old promise shall stande as touchyng my pre-
ferrying to the 'Boreshed' in Suthwerke."*

It is in this same collection that we find mention
made of the use of "boar-spears" in Norfolk, in the
fifteenth century, first in a petition of John Paston
to the King and Parliament, in 1450, touching his
expulsion from Gresham by Lord Molyns, whose
retainers held forcible possession of this man or "with
bore-speres, swordes, and gesernys" (battle-axes) ;
and again in a similar petition of Walter Ingham in
1454-t

The boar-spear of those days was very different
from the spear now used by boar-hunters in India.
Nicholas Cox, in " The Gentleman's Recreation,"
first published in 1674, thus describes it: — "The
hunting spear must be very sharp and broad, branch-
ing forth into certain forks, so that the boar may
not break through them upon the huntsman." The
modern Anglo-Indian spear is from six to eight feet
long ; the shaft of bamboo weighted with lead ; the
spear-head a broad and stout blade.

* " The Paston Letters," ed. Gairdner, vol. i. p. 431.
f Op. cit., vol, i., pp. 107, 271.

THE WOLF.

THE WOLF.

Canis lupus.

OF the five species which come within the scope of
the present work, the Wolf was the last to disappear.
On this account, partly, the materials for its history
as a British animal are more complete than is the
case with any of the others.

To judge by the osteological remains which the
researches of geologists have brought to light, there
was perhaps scarcely a county in England or Wales
in which, at one time or another, Wolves did not

i

n6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

abound, while in Scotland and Ireland they must
have been even still more numerous.

The vast tracts of unreclaimed forest land which
formerly existed in these realms, the magnificent
remnants of which in many parts still strike the
beholder with awe and admiration, afforded for
centuries an impenetrable retreat for these animals,
from which it was well-nigh impossible to drive
them. It was not, indeed, until all legitimate
modes of hunting and trapping had proved in vain,
until large prices set upon the heads of old and
young had alike failed to compass their entire
destruction, that by cutting down or burning whole
tracts of the forests which harboured them, they
were at length effectually extirpated.

In the course of the following remarks -it is proposed
to deal, first, with the geological evidence of the
former existence and distribution of Wolves in the
British Islands ; secondly, with the historical evidence
of their survival and gradual extinction.

Under the latter head it will be convenient to
arrange the evidence separately for England and
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland : and, as regards
England and Wales, to subdivide the subject
chronologically into (i) the Ancient British Period;
(2) the Anglo-Saxon Period; and (3) the period
intervening between the Norman Conquest and the
reign of Henry VII.

In this reign, it is believed, the last trace of the
Wolf in England disappeared, since history there-
after is silent on the subject. In Scotland and

THE WOLF. 117

Ireland, however, this was by no means the case, as,
later on, we shall be able to show.

GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

( )\\ing to the great similarity which exists between
the skeleton of a Wolf and that of a large Dog, such
as would be used in the chase, it is very difficult to
distinguish between them. Professor Owen, in his

SKULL OF WOLF. Q NAT. SIZE.)

" British Fossil Mammals," has remarked upon this
difficulty, and, following Cuvier, has pointed out the
chief distinguishing characters which may be relied
upon for identification, and which lie chiefly in the
skull. He says : — " The Wolf has the triangular
part of the forehead behind the orbits a little nar-
rower and flatter, the occipito-sagittal crest longer
and loftier, and the teeth, especially the canines,
proportionately larger. ' '*

* Compare the crania of the Wolf here figured (pp. 120, 121) with
those of the Dog, upper and under surfaces, given by Professor
Flower in his " Osteology of the Mammalia," pp. 1 13, 116 (rst ed.).

I 2

n8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

So far as we have been enabled to collect the evi-
dence, it would appear that undoubted remains of the
Wolf have been found in the following localities, for
a knowledge of many of which we are indebted to
Professor Boyd Dawkins' able paper, " On the
Distribution of the British Post-Glacial Mammals,"
published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society, vol. xxv. 1869, p. 192.

BERKSHIRE. — Windsor (Mus. Geol. Survey).

DERBYSHIRE. — PleasbyVale (Mus. GeoL Survey); "Windy Knoll,
Castleton (Dawkins, " Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." xxxi. p. 246,
and xxxiii. p. 727) ; Creswell Crag Caves (Mello and Busk,
"Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." xxxi. p. 684; Dawkins, op. cit.
xxxii. p. 248, aud xxxiii. pp. 590 and 602.)

DEVONSHIRE. — Bench Cave, Brixham (W. A. Sanford) ; Kent's
Hole, Torquay (Mus. Geol. Soc., Mus Eoy. Coll. Surg., and
Mus. Oxford) ; Oreston, near Plymouth (Brit. Mus. and Mus.
Geol. Soc. ; Owen, " Brit. Foss. Mamm." p. 123).

GLAMORGANSHIRE. — Gower.Bacon's Hole (Mus. Swansea ; Falconer,
"Palseont. Mem." ii. pp. 183, 325, 340, 349, 501); Bosco's
Hole (Mus. Swansea; Falconer, torn. cit. pp. 510, 589) ; Crow-
Hole (Mus. Swansea; Falconer, torn. cit. p. 519) ; Deborah
Den (Mus. Swansea; Falconer, torn. cit. p. 467) ; Long Hole
(Falconer, torn. cit. pp. 400, 525, 538) ; Minchin Hole (Brit.
Mus. ; Mus. Swansea) ; Paviland (Mus. Oxford and Swan-
sea; Owen, "Brit. Foss. Mamm." p. 124); Kavenscliff
(Falconer, torn. cit. p. 519); Spritsail Tor (id. pp. 179,462,
477, 522).

GLOUCESTERSHIRE. — Tewkesbury (Owen, " Brit. Foss. Mamm.").

KENT.— Murston, Sittingbourne (Mus. Geol. Survey).

ESSEX.— Valley of the Boding, Ilford (Sir A. Brady).

NORFOLK. — Denver Sluicef (Mus. Geol. Cambr.).

OXFORDSHIRE. — Thame (Coll. Codrington, " Quart. Journ. Geol.
Soc." xx. p. 374).

SOMERSETSHIRE. — Benwell Cave ("W. Borrer) ; Blendon (Mus.
Taunton) ; Hutton (Mus. Taunton) ; Sandford Hill (Mus.
Taunton) ; Uphill (Mus. Bath and Taunton) ; Wokey Hole
(Mus. Oxford, Taunton, and Bristol).

t A landscape by E. W. Fraser " On the Ouze near Denver Sluice "
was exhibited at the Eoyal Academy in 1877, TsTo. 794. The locality
is a few miles to the South of Downham Market, and just below where
the old and new Bedford rivers run into the natural stream.

THE WOLF. 119

SUSSEX.— Bracklesham (Brit. Mus. and Mus. Chicliester) ; Peven-

sey* (" Sussex Archaeol. Coll." xxiv. p. 160.)
WILTSUIRE. — Vale of Kennet (" Sussex Archaeol." torn. cit.).
YORKSHIRE. — Bielbecks (Mus. York ; " Phil. Mag." vol. vi. p. 225) ;

Kirkdalo (Brit. Mus., Mus. Geol. Soc. and Roy. Coll. Surg ;

Buckland, "Trans. Eoy. Soc." 1822 ; Clift, id. 1823, p. 90).

We have here a dozen counties in different parts
of England and Wales, north, south, east, and west,
which show clearly from their position how very gene-
rally distributed the Wolf must formerly have been.

The geological record, however, is but an im-
perfect one in showing the distribution of the Wolf
in bygone times, for to the localities above mentioned
might be added numerous others in which we know
from history that this animal formerly abounded.
The forest of Rlddlesdale in Northumberland ; the
great forests of Blackburnshire and Bowland in
Lancashire ; Richmond Forest, Yorkshire ; Sherwood
Forest, Nottinghamshire ; Savernake Forest, Wilts ;
the New Forest ; the forests of Bere and Irwell, and
many others, are on record as former strongholds of
these ferocious animals. To these we shah1 have
occasion to refer later when dealing with the
historical evidence.

Unlike other extinct British animals, the Wolf
apparently has not deteriorated in size, for the fossil
bones which have been discovered, as above men-
tioned, are not larger, nor in any way to be dis-
tinguished from those of European wolves of the
present day.

* Iu 1851 many skulls of Wolves were taken out of a disused
mediaeval well at Pevensey Castle.

EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE — ENGLAND.

Ancient British Period. — Dio Nicseus, speaking
of the inhabitants of the northern parts of this
island, tells us they were a fierce and barbarous

CRANIUM OF WOLF. UPPJill SUKFACE. (-3 NAT. S17.E.)

people, who tilled no ground, but lived upon the
depredations they committed in the southern dis-
tricts or upon the food they procured by hunting.
Strabo also says (lib. iv.) that the dogs bred in
Britain were highly esteemed upon the Continent on
account o± their excellent qualities for hunting, and
these qualities, he seems to hint, were natural to

THE WOLF. 121

them, and not the effect of tutorage by their foreign
masters. Wolf-hunting appears to have been a
favourite pursuit with the ancient Britons. Mem-
pricius or Memprys, one of the immediate descendants
of Brutus, who reigned until B.C. 980, fell a victim

CRANIUM OF WOLF. UNDER SUKFACE. (3 NAT. SI/1..)

in that year to the Wolves which he delighted to
pursue, and was unfortunately devoured by them.

" Hys brothir he slwe —
For tyl succede tyl hym as kyng.
It happynde syne at a huntyng
"VVytht wolwys hym to weryde be ;
Swa endyit his iniquite."

Wyntoivnits Ci'onylcil, i. p. 54.

Blaiddyd, another British monarch (B.C. 863), who
seems to have been learned in chemistry, is said to

i22 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

have discovered the medicinal properties of the Bath
mineral waters, by observing that cattle when
attacked and wounded by the Wolves went and
stood in these waters, and were then healed much
sooner then they would have been by any other
means. From this it may be inferred that Wolf-
hunting was found by the ancient Britons to be a
necessary and pleasurable, yet dangerous, pursuit.

We do not find, says Strutt,* that during the
establishment of the Romans in Britain, there were
any restrictive laws promulgated respecting the
killing of game. It appears to have been an
established maxim in the early jurisprudence of that
people, to invest the right of such things as had no
master with those who were the first possessors.
Wild beasts, birds, and fishes became the property of
those who first could take them. It is most
probable that the Britons were left at liberty to
exercise their ancient privileges ; for had any
severity been exerted to prevent the destruction of
game, such laws would hardly have been passed over
without the slightest notice being taken of them by
the ancient historians.

Anglo-Saxon Period. — As early as the ninth cen-
tury, and doubtless long before that, a knowledge of
hunting formed an essential part of the education of
a young nobleman. Asser, in his " Life of Alfred the
Great," assures us that that monarch before he was
twelve years of age "was a most expert and active
hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that most

* " Sports and Pastimes of the People of England."

THE WOLF.

123

noble art, to which he applied with incessant labour
and amazing success." Hunting the Wolf, the Wild
Boar, the Fox, and the Deer, were the favourite
pastimes of the nobility of that day, and the Dogs
which they employed for these various branches of the
sport, were held by them in the highest estimation.
Such ravages did the Wolves commit during winter,

TKETII OF WOLF. NATURAL SIZE.

particularly in January when the cold was severest,
that the Saxons distinguished that month by the
name of " Wolf month."

"The month which we now call January," says
Verstegan, "they called 'Wolf monat,' to wit, 'Wolf
moneth/ because people are wont always in that
month to be in more danger to be devoured of Wolves
than in any season else of the year; for that, through
the extremity of cold and snow, these ravenous

i24 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

creatures could not find of other beasts sufficient to
feed upon."*

The Saxons also called an outlaw " wolfs-head/'t
as being out of the protection of the law, proscribed,
and as liable to be killed as that destructive beast.
" Et tune gerunt caput lupinum, ita quod sine judiciali
inquisilione rite pereant."^

In the " Penitentiale" of Archbishop Egber,1-, drawn
up about A.D. 750, it is laid down (lib. iv.) that, " if
a wolf shall attack cattle of any kind, and the animal
attacked shall die in. consequence, no Christian may
touch it."

It is to the terror which the Wolf inspired among
our forefathers that we are to ascribe the fact of
kings and rulers, in a barbarous age, feeling proud of
bearing the name of this animal as an attribute of
courage and ferocity. Brute power was then con-
sidered the highest distinction of man, and the
sentiment was not mitigated by those refinements of
modern life which conceal but do not destroy it.
We thus find, amongst our Anglo-Saxon kings and
great men, such names as Ethel wulf, "the Noble
Wolf;" Berth wulf, "the Illustrious Wolf ;" Eadwulf,
" the Prosperous Wolf;" Ealdwulf, " the Old Wolf."

In Athelstan's reign, Wolves abounded so in York-
shire that a retreat was built by one Acehorn, at

* " Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," p. 64 (ed. 1673).

f Ang.-Sax. Wulvcslwofod, that is, having the head of a Wolf. In
1041, the fugitive Godwin was proclaimed Wulveshcofod, a price being
set upon his head. The term was in use temp. Henry II.

J Bracton, " De legibus et consuetudinibus Anglia?," lib. iii. tr. ii.
c. ii (1569). See also Knighton, " De Eventibus Anglise," in
Twysden's " Historic Angiicame Scriptorcs Decem," p. 2356 (1652).

THE WOLF. 125

Flixton, near Filey, in that county, wherein travellers,
might seek refuge if attacked by them.

Carnden says :— " More inward stands Flixton,
where a hospital was built in the time of Athelstan,
tor defending travellers from Wolves (as it is word
for word in the public records), that they should not
be devoured by them/'* It is currently believed
that a farmhouse between the villages of Flixton
and Staxton now stands on the site of this hospital.
It was restored and confirmed in 1447 by the name
of Canons Spittle, and was dissolved about 1535,
The farm is still called Spittal Farm, and a small
stream running by it is called Spittal Brook.*

When Athelstan, in 938, obtained a signal victory
at Brunanburgh over Constantine, King of Wales,
he imposed upon him a yearly tribute of money and
cattle, to which was also added a certain number of
" hawks and sharp- scented dogs, tit for the hunting
of wild beasts."| His successor, Edgar, remitted
the pecuniary payment on condition of receiving-
annually from Ludwall§ (or Idwal||), the successor of
Constantine, the skins of three hundred Wolves.'

* Camden, " Britannia," tit. Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 902.

f This information was communicated to the author by the Rev.
Henry Blane, of Folkton Rectory, (Jantou, York.

* William of Malmesbury, " Hist. Reg. Anglorum," lib. ii. c. 6.

§ Of. Holinshed's " Chronicles," vol. i. p. 378 (4to cd. 1807), and
Selden's Notes to Drayton's " Polyolbion," Song ix.

|| Cf. Camdeu's " Britannia," tit. Merionethshire, vol. ii. p. 785.
^f William of Malmesbury, op/ cit. lib. ii. c. 8. See^also the quaint
remarks on this subject by Taylor, the Water Poet, in his "Journey
through Wales," 1652 (p;i. 31, 32, Halliwell's edition, 1859). The
value of a wolf-skin in Wales, as fixed by the Code of Laws made by
How el Dha in the ninth century. \v;is eight pemv. the tame value
being set upon an otter-skin.

i26 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

We do not find, indeed, that the hawks and hounds
were included in this new stipulation, but it does
not seem reasonable that Edgar, who, like his pre-
decessor, was extremely fond of field sports, should
have remitted that part of the tribute.*

It is generally admitted that Edgar relinquished
the fine of gold and silver imposed by his uncle
Athelstan upon Constantine, and claimed in its
stead the annual production of 300 wolf- skins, be-
cause, say the historians, the extensive woodlands
and coverts, abounding at that time in Britain,
afforded shelter for the Wolves, which were ex-
ceedingly numerous, especially in the districts
bordering upon Wales. By this prudent expedient,
in less than four years, it is said, the whole island
was cleared of these ferocious animals, without
putting his subjects to the least expense.t But, as
Strutt has observed, \ "if this record be taken in
its full latitude, and the supposition established,
that the Wolves were totally exterminated in Britain
during the reign of Edgar, more will certainly be
admitted than is consistent with the truth, as certain
documents clearly prove." The words of William of
Malmesbury on the subject are to this effect, that
"he, Edgar, imposed a tribute upon the King of
Wales, exacting yearly 300 Wolves. This tribute

* Strutt, " Sports and Pastimes."

t It is singular that the same expedient has been resorted to in
modern times, and with considerable success. In the accounts of
Assinniboia, Bed River Territory, there is an entry of payment for
Wolves' heads; and in 1868 the State of Minnesota paid for Wolves'
scalps 11,300 dollars, at the rate of 10 dollars apiece.

+ " Sports and Pastimes."

THE WOLF. 127

continued to be paid for three years, but ceased
upon the fourth, because, ' nidlurn se ulterius posse
invenire professus,' it was said that he could not
find any more."*

" Cambria's proud Kings (tho' with reluctance) paid
Their tributary wolves ; head after head,
In full account, till the woods yield no more,
And all the rav'nous race extinct is lost."

SOMEKVILE'S Chace.

But this must be taken to refer only to Wales, for in
the first place it can hardly be supposed that the
Welsh chieftain would be permitted to hunt out of
his own dominions, and in the next place there is
abundant documentary evidence to prove the exist-
ence of Wolves in England for many centuries later.
Holinshed, who gives a much fuller account, says :f
— " The happie and fortunate want of these beasts
in England is vniuersallie ascribed to the politike
government of King Edgar, who to the intent the
whole countrie might once be clensed and clearelie
rid of them, charged the conquered Welshmen (who
were then pestered with these rauenous creatures
aboue measure) to paie him a yearlie tribute of
woolfes skinnes, to be gathered within the land. He
appointed them thereto a certaine number of 30x3,
with free libertie for their prince to hunt and
pursue them ouer all quarters of the realme ; as our
chronicles doo report. Some there be which write

* "Hist. Eeg. Anglorum," lib. ii. cap. 8. Sec also Wynne's
" Caradoc," p. 51.

f " Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland," (ed. 4to, 1807),
vol. i. p. 378, bk. iii. chap. iv. : ' Of Savage Beasts and Vermines.'

128 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

how Ludwall, prince of Wales, paid yearelie to King-
Edgar this tribute of 300 woolfes, whose carcases
being brought into Lloegres, were buried at Wolfpit,
in Cambridgeshire, and that by meanes thereof
within the compasse and terme of foure yeares, none
of these noisome creatures were left to be heard of
within Wales and England. Since this time, also, we
read not that anie woplfe hath beene seene here that
hath beene bred within the bounds and limits of our
countrie : howbeit there hkue beene diuerse brought
over from beyond the seas for greedinesse of gaine,
and to make monie onlie by the gasing and gaping of
our people vpon them, who couet oft to see them,
being strange beasts in their eies, and sildome
knowne (as I haue said) in England."

This event is related somewhat differently by the
Welsh historians. " In the year 965," says Powel,
" the country of North Wales was cruelly wasted by
the army of Edgar, King of England ; the occasion
of which was, the non-payment of the tribute that
the king of Aberffraw (North Wales), by the laws
of How el Dha, was obliged to pay to the king of
London (England). But at length a peace was con-
cluded upon these conditions, that the king of North
Wales, instead of money, should pay to the king of
England the tribute of 300 Wolves yearly ; which
creature was then very pernicious and destructive to
England and Wales. This tribute being duly per-
formed for two years, the third year there were none
to be found in any part of the island, so that after-
wards the prince of North Wales became exempt

THE WOLF. 129

from paying any acknowledgment to the king of
England.''

The amount of the original tribute commuted for
this tax of Wolves, the time when that tribute was
appointed, and the cause for which it was imposed,
are altogether circumstances not very generally under-
stood. It is vaguely imagined to have been a de-
grading tax paid by the people of Wales to the
English monarch, in token of their subjection to his
sovereignty as their conque'ror. "This," says Powel,
" is not the fact ; it arose from a local cause : from one
of those cruel dissensions among the native princes
which too often disgrace the Welsh annals, and to
settle which the weakest never failed to invite the
aid of foreign force.

About the year 953, Owen, the son of Griffith, was
slain by the men of Cardigan ; and Athelstane, upon
this pretext, entering with an army into Wales,
imposed an annual tribute upon certain princes to
the amount of £20 in gold, ^300 in silver, and 200
head of cattle, but which was not observed by these
Welsh princes, as appears by the laws of Howel Dha,
wherein the levy is appointed. It is there decreed
that the Prince of Aberffraw should pay no more to
the English king than £66 tribute, and even this sum
was to be contributed to the prince of Aberffraw by
the princes of Dinefawr and Powis, upon whom this
tax was virtually imposed. The principality of Dine-
fawr, it may be observed, included Cardigan, by the
men of which district the alleged crime had been
committed ; and Powis, which was close to the

130 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

English borders, was apparently implicated in the
same offence."

Hence it appears the tax was a local fine imposed
upon these two princes, only that the prince of
North Wales was made answerable for its due per-
formance. The tax existed therefore, though but
nominally, for the space of two-and-thirty years —
namely, from the time of Athelstane to Edgar — when
the above recorded commutation of the tribute took
place, and for the fulfilment of which condition it is
apparent the prince of North Wales was again made
answerable.

That the principality of Wales was, by this salutary
means, delivered in a great measure from the pest of
Wolves may be conceived. In this the histories of
the Welsh agree ; but there is some shade of differ-
ence in their conclusions as to the utter extermination
of the race ; and it is now believed that they were
not entirely destroyed in Wales till years after.
Owen, in his " Cambrian Biography," says it was not
till forty-five years after.*

Drayton, in his " Polyolbion" (Song ix.), has thus
commemorated the wisdom of Edgar's policy : —

" Thrice famous Saxon king, on whom Time ne'er shall prey.
0 Edgar ! who compell'dst our Ludwall hence to pay
Three hundred Wolves a year for tribute unto thee ;
And for that tribute paid, as famous may'st thou be,
O conquer'd British king, by whom was first destroy'd
The multitude of Wolves that long this land annoy'd."

* " lago ap Idwal Yoel, king of Gwynedd, from A.D. 948 to 979.
From 948 to 966 he reigned jointly with his brother Jevav. In 962
Edgar made him pay tribute of wolves' heads ; and in forty-five years
after, all these animals were destroyed."

THE WOLF. 131

The learned Dr. Kay* acquiesced in the vulgar
opinion of the extinction of Wolves in England by
King Edgar, and in his work on "British Dogs/' pub-
lished in 1570, treating of the sheep-dog (Pastoralis)
he says : " Sunt qui scribunt Ludwallum Cambrics
principem pendisse annuatim Edgaro regi ^ooluporum
tributi nomine, atque ita annis quatuor onmem Cambriam,
atque adeo omnem Angliam, orbasse lupis."

" Regnavit autem Edgarus circiter annum 959, a quo
tempore non legimus nativum in Anglia visum lupum."

The worthy doctor seems to have been little aware
that even at the date at which he wrote wolves still
existed in the British Islands. Dr. John Walker
was almost as much at fault when he wrote : " Canis
lupus. Habitavit olim in Britannia. Quondam incola
sylvai caledonice. In Scotia seculo xv. extinctus, et
postremo in regions Navernice."^

Pennant, referring to the received opinion that a
great part of the kingdom was freed from Wolves
through the exertions of King Edgar, says : — " In
England he attempted to effect it by commuting the
punishments for certain crimes into the acceptance
of a number of Wolves' tongues from each criminal ;
in Wales by converting a tax of gold and silver into
an annual tribute of 300 Wolves' heads. Notwith-
standing his endeavours, however, and the assertions

* " Joannis Caii Britanni 'de Canibua Britannicis.' " Liber unus.
Londini, per Gulielmum Seresium. 8vo, 1570. There is a transla-
tion of this work in the British Museum, entitled, " Of Englisho
Dogges, newly drawn into English." By Abraham Fleming, Student.
London. 4^0,1576. A reprint of this has been recently published.

f* Mammalia Scotica,' in "Essays on Nat. Hist, and Kural
Economy," 1814, p. 480.

K

132 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

of some authors to the contrary, his scheme proved
abortive."*

We have met with a statement to the effect
that "two wooden Wolves' heads still remain near
Glastonbury on an ancient house where [query, on
the site of which] at Eadgerly, King Edgar lived and
received annually his tax from the Welsh in 300
heads, "t

This statement, however, conflicts somewhat with
that of Holinshed, who says that " the carcases being-
brought into Lloegres, were buried at Wolfpit in
Cambridgeshire. "|

In the Forest Laws of Canute, promulgated in
1016, the Wolf is thus expressly mentioned : — " As
for foxes and wolves, they are neither reckoned as
beasts of the forest or of venery, and therefore who-
ever kills any of them is out of all danger of for-
feiture, or making any recompense or amends for the
same. Nevertheless, the killing them within the
limits of the forest is a breach of the royal chase, and
therefore the offender shall yield a recompense for
the same, though it be but easy and gentle."§

It was" doubtless to this constitution that the
Solicitor-General St. John referred, at the trial of the
Earl of Strafford, when he said, " We give law to
hares and deer, because they are beasts of chase ; but
we give no law to wolves and foxes, because they are

* "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 88 (1812).
f " Sussex Archaeol. Coll." vol. iv. p. 83 (1851).
I "Chronicles," vol. i. p. 378 (4to ed. 1807).

§ See Manwood's " Forest Laws." The Charter of the Forest of
Cauutusthe Dane (§ 27).

THE WOLR 133

beasts of prey, but knock them on the head wherever
we find them."*

Liulphus, a dean of Whalley in the time of Canute,
was celebrated as a wolf-hunter at Rossendale, Lan-
cashire, t

Matthew Paris, in his " Lives of the Abbots of St.
Albans," mentions a grant of church lands by Abbot
Leofstan (the I2th abbot of that monastery) to
Thurnoth and others, in consideration of their keep-
ing the woods between the Chiltern Hundreds and
London free from wolves and other wild beasts.

It would seem that the " ancient and accustomed
tribute" due to the English kings was repeated by
the Welsh princes in the very last years of the
Anglo-Saxon monarchy. It was demanded by and
rendered to Harold.J

Period from the Conquest to the reign of Henry VII.
— Historical evidence of the existence of wolves in
Great Britain before the Norman Conquest, as
might be expected, is meagre and unsatisfactory,
and the abundance of these animals in our islands
prior to that date is chiefly to be inferred from the
measures which in later times were devised for their
destruction.

In the "Carmen de Bello Hastingensi," by Guido,
Bishop of Amiens (v. 571 ), it is related that William
the Conqueror left the dead bodies of the English
upon the battle-field to be devoured by worms, wolves,
birds, and dogs — vermibus, atque lupis, avibus, cani-

* Clarendon, "Hist. Reb." fol. ed., i. p. 183.

f Whitaker's "History of Whalley," p. 222. J Palgrave.

K 2

i34 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

busque voranda. When Waltheof, the son of Siwardr
with an invading Danish army arrived in the
Humber, in September, 1069, and, reinforced by the
men of Northumbria, made an attack upon York, it is
related that 3,000 Normans fell. A hundred of the
chiefest in rank were said to have fallen amongst
the flames by the hand of Waltheof himself, and the
Scalds of the North sang how the son of Siward gave
the corpses of the Frenchmen as a choice banquet for
the Wolves of Northumberland.*

In 1076 Robert de Umfraville,t Knight, lord of
Toures and Tain, otherwise called " Robert with the
Beard," being kinsman to that king, obtained from
him a grant of the lordship, valley, and forest of
Riddesdale, in the county of Northumberland, with
all castles, manors, lands, woods, pastures, waters,
pools, and royal franchises which were formerly pos-
sessed by Mildred, the son of Akman, late lord of
Riddesdale, and which came to that king upon his
conquest of England ; to hold by the service of
defending that part of the country for ever from
enemies and Wolves, with the sword which King
William had by his side when he entered North-
umberland.^

1087-1100. The inveterate love of the chase

* Freeman's " Norman Conquest."

f " The name seems to be derived from one of the several places iu
Normandy now called Amfreville, but in some instances originally
Omfreville, that is Humfredi villa, the vill or abode of Humphrey."
— LOWER, Patronymica Britannica.

J See Dugdale's " Baronage," vol. i. p. 504 ; and Blount's " Ancient
Tenures," p. 241.

THE WOLF. 135

possessed by William Rufus, which prompted him to
-enforce, during his tragical reign, the most stringent
and cruel forest laws, is too well known to readers of
history to require comment. It cannot be doubted
that in the vast forests* which then covered the
greater part of the country, and through which he
•continuously hunted, he must have encountered and
slain many a Wolf. Yet, strange to say, a careful
search through a great number of volumes has re-
sulted in a failure to discover any evidence upon
this point, or indeed any mention of the Wolf in con-
nection with this monarch.

Longstafle, in his account of " Durham before the
Conquest," states that a great increase of Wolves
took place in Richinondshire during this century,
and mentions incidentally that Richard Ingeniator
-dealing with property at Wolverston (called Olveston
in the time of William Rufus) sealed the grant with
an impression of a Wolf.

1100-1135. In his passion for hunting wild
.animals, Henry I. excelled even his brother William,
and not content with encountering and slaying those
which, like the Wolf and the Wild-boar, were at
that time indigenous to this country, he " cherished
•of set purpose sundrie kinds of wild beasts, as bears,
libards, ounces, lions, at Woodstocke and one or two
•other places in England, which he walled about with

* " The word ' forest,' in its original and most extended sense,
implied a tract of land lying out (foras), that is, rejected, as of no
"value, in the first distribution of property." — WIIITAKER, History of
Whalley, p. 193.

136 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

hard stone An. 1120, and where he would often
fight with some one of them hand to hand."*

Amongst other forest laws made in this reign, was-
one which provided that compensation should be
made for any injury occasioned during a wolf hunt.
Si quis arcu vel balista de subitanti, vel pedico ad
lupos vel ad aliud capiendum posito, dampanum vel
inalum aliquod recipiat, solvat qui posuitf

1 156. There can be no doubt that at this period,
and for some time afterwards, the New Forest, as well
as the Forest of Bere, in Hampshire, both favourite
hunting-grounds with William Rufus and his brother
Henry, were the strongholds of the Wolf, as they
were of the Wild-boar and the Red-deer, for in the
second year of the reign of Henry II. the sheriff of
Hants had an allowance made to him in the Ex-
chequer for several sums by him disbursed for the
livery of the King's wolf-hunters, hawkers, falconers,
and others. " Et in liberatione lupariorum ioo*.r
et in Hberatione accipitrariorum et fahonariorum Regis
22li per Willelmum Cumin "\

In the fourth year of the same reign, the sheriffs of
London were allowed by the Chancellor 405. out of the
Exchequer for the King's huntsmen and his dogs, " Et
venatoribus Regis et canibus ejusxl*. per cancellarium.'\

Conan, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond,

* Harrison's "Description of England," prefixed to Holinshed's
" Chronicle," p. 226.

" Leges Regis Henrici primi," cap. 90, § 2.

| Madox, " History and Antiquities of the Exchequer of the King*
of England from the Norman Conquest to the end of the Eeign of
Edward II.," vol. i. p. 204 (1769).

§ Madox, torn. cit. p. 207.

THE WOLF. 137

in 1 1 64, granted, amongst other privileges, to the
Abbey of Jourvaulx, several pastures on the north
side of the river Jore, reserving only liberty for his
deer, likewise pasturage throughout his new forest,
near Richmond, Yorkshire, for all their cattle, with
power to keep hounds for chasing Wolves out of
those their territories.^

It is related in the "Annales Cambria?" (Harl.
MSS., No. 3859 on vellum) that in 1 166 a rabid Wolf
at Caermarthen bit twenty-two persons, nearly all
of whom died.t

In 1167, the Bishopric of Hereford was vested in
the King in consequence of the see being then vacant ;
and in the account of John Cumin, who acted in
the capacity of Gustos, we find in the accounts of
the revenue and expenditure of the temporalities a
payment of i os. for three Wolves captured that year.
" Etpro tribus Lupis capiendis, xs"

William Beriwere obtained from Henry II. the
confirmation of all his lands, as also the forestership
of the Forest of De la Bere, with power to take any
person transgressing therein between the bars of
Hampton and the gates of Winchester, and likewise
between the river of Ramsey and the river of Win-
chester to the sea, as amply as his father had held
the same in the times of King William and King
Henry I. From Richard I. (whom he accompanied

* Dugdale's " Baronage," vol. i. p. 48. " Ex. Kegist. Archiep.
Cant." p. 8;5a.

•f " Apud Kermerden lupus rdbiosus duo de viginto Jbomtitea
momordit qui omnes fere protinus periereunt." This MS. is believed
to be a translation from the original Welsh. Ed. Williams (Master of
the Rolls Series), pp. 50, 51.

138 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

to the Holy Land, and whom he was instrumental
in delivering from prison when that king was con-
fined in Germany) he obtained many valuable emolu-
ments as well as large territorial grants, and in the
following reign was no less fortunate with King
John, who, having a great regard for him in conse-
quence of his knowledge in the art and mystery of
venery, gave him license to enclose his woods at
Joare, Cadelegh, Baddon, Ailesberie, and Burgh
Walter, with free liberty to hunt the hare, fox, cat,
and Wolf, throughout all Devonshire, and likewise
the goat beyond the precincts of the forest ; and to
have free warren throughout all his own lands for
hares, pheasants, and partridges.*

From a charter of liberties granted by King John,
when Earl of Morton, to the inhabitants of Devon-
shire, it appears that the "Wolf was at that time
included amongst the " beasts of venery " in that
county. The original deed, which is still pre-
served in the custody of the Dean and Chapter of
Exeter, is under seal, and provides inter alia as
follows : —

" Quod habeant canes suos et alias libertates, sicut
melius et liberius illas haberunt tempore ejusd. Henrici
regis et reisellos suos, et quod capiant capreolum,
vulpem, cattum, lupum, Icporem, lutram, ubicumque
ilia invenirent extra regardum forestce mece."^

1209. Mr. Evelyn P. Shirley has printed J two

* Dugdale's " Baronage," vol. i. p. 701.

f Ex Autographo penes Dec. et Capit. Exon. From Bp. Lyttelton's
Collection. Quoted by Pennant, " British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 308.
J " Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica," vol. vi. p. 299.

THE WOLF. 139

deeds of the loth of John relating to the manor of
Henwick, in the parish of Bulwick, county North-
ampton, held by the tenure of hunting the Wolf
(fwj acorn lupi), and he suggests that from this
tenure probably the family of Luvet or Lovett,
originally of Rushton, and afterwards of Astwell,
in the county of Northampton, bore, for their arms :
Argent, three Wolves, passant, in pale, sable, armed
and langued, gules. *

1212. In this year, when the neighbourhood around
Kingsclere was all forest, an entry occurs in the
Patent Rolls of a payment of 55. as a reward for the
capture of a Wolf at Freemantle. t The Roll referred
to is doubtless the Eotulus Misce, annis Regis Johannis
quartodecimi (1212-1213), where the following entries
occur relating to the capture or chase of the Wolf : —

" On Thursday next in the octave of the Holy
Trinity [May 12], for a Wolf captured at Freemantle,
[Surrey] by the dogs of Master Ernald de Auc-
lent, 5s."

"Item, [at Hereford]. Thursday next following
the Feast of St. Martin [Nov. 22] to Norman the
keeper of the Veltrars,J and to Wilkin Doggett, his
associate, for two Wolves captured in the forest of
Irwell, 10.9., by the king's command, &c."

" Item. Wednesday next following the Feast of

* The Wolf frequently appears on heraldic bearings.

t " Patent Kolls," May 31, 1212, quoted in " Sussex Archaeological
Collections," xxiv. p. 161.

J VeUrarius, or vautrarius, from the French vault-re, was a mongrel
hound for the chase of the wild-boar. See Blount, " Ancient Tenures,"
P- 233-

1 40 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

St. Gregory [March 12], for two Wolves captured,
one at Boscha de Furchiis, the other at Willes, i os. ,
given to Smalobbe and Wilck, the keepers of the
veltrario of Thomas de Sandford."

It is perhaps not generally known that the cir-
cumstance narrated in the story of Bedd Gelert,
with which every one is familiar, is said to have
occurred in the reign of King John, and, as it is a
story of a British Wolf, it is scarcely to be passed
over here without some brief notice, the more so as
it is not at all unlikely that it is founded on fact.

The tradition, as related by Bingley in his " Tour
round North Wales,"* is to the effect that Llewellyn,
who was Prince of Wales in the reign of King John,
resided at the foot of Snowdon, and, amongst a
number of other hounds which he possessed, had one
of rare excellence which had been given to him by
the king. On one occasion, during the absence of
the family, a Wolf entered the house; and Llewellyn,
who first returned, was met at the door by his
favourite dog, who came out, covered with blood, to
greet his master. The prince, alarmed, ran into the
house, to find his child's cradle overturned, and the
ground flowing with blood. In a moment of terror,
imagining that the dog had killed the child, he
plunged his sword into his body, and laid him dead
on the spot. But, on turning up the cradle, he
found his boy alive and sleeping by the side of the
dead Wolf. This circumstance had such an effect 011

* "A Tour round North Wales," 1800, vol. i. p. 363. See also
Sir John Carr's " Stranger in Ireland," 4to, 1806.

THE WOLF. 141

the mind of the prince, that he erected a tomb over
the faithful dog's grave on the spot where afterwards
the parish church was built, called from this incident
Bedd Gelert, or the grave of Gelert. From this
story was derived the common Welsh proverb, "I
repent as much as the man who slew his greyhound. "

The dog referred to belonged probably to the race
called by Pennant "the Highland gre-hound," of
great size and strength, deep-chested, and covered
with long rough hair. This kind was much esteemed in
former days, and was used for hunting by all the great
chieftains in preference to any other. Boethius styles it
" genus venaticum cum celerrimum turn audacissimum."

1216-1272. In the following reign of Henry III.
Wolves were sufficiently numerous in some parts of
the country to induce the king to make grants of
land to various individuals upon the express con-
dition of their taking measures to destroy these
animals wherever they could be found.

In 1242 it appears that Vitalis Engaine made
partition with William de Cantelupe, Baron of Ber-
gavenny, of the manor of Badmundesfield, in Suffolk,
as heir to William de Curtenai, and the same year
had a summons, amongst divers great men, to attend
the king, well appointed with horse and arms, in
his expedition into France. He died in 1 249, seized,
inter alia, of part of the lordships of Laxton and
Pichesle, in the county of Northampton, held by
"petit serjeanty" — viz., to hunt the Wolf whensoever
the kiny should command*

* Dngdale's " Baronage," vol. i. p. 466.

142 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS,

Selden, in his notes to Dray ton's " Polyolbion"
(ix. 76), refers to the manor of Piddlesey in Leices-
tershire, which was held by one Henry of Angage
per serjeantiam capiendi lupos, and quotes as his
authority "Itin. Leicesters. 27 Hen. III. in Archiv.
Turr. Lond." In the same reign, William de Limeres
held of the king, in capiie, in the county of South-
ampton, one carucate* of land in Comelessend by
the service of hunting the Wolf with the king's
dogs.t

1272-1307. In the third year of the reign of
Edward I., namely, in 1275, Sir John d'Engayne,
knight, and Elena d'Engayne, his wife, held lands in
Pightesley, in the county of Northampton, by the
service of hunting the Wolf, for his pleasure, in that
county, J from which it is to be inferred that this
animal was then common enough to be hunted for
sport, as the fox is now-a-days. Other lands in the
same county were held at this time on condition of
the tenant finding dogs "for the destruction of
Wolves" and other animals. § It appears by the
Patent Eolls of the Qth year of Edward I. that in
1280, John Giffard of Brymmesfield or Brampfield,
was empowered to destroy the Wolves in all the
king's forests throughout the realm. ||

In 1281, Peter Corbet was commissioned to destroy

* Carucate, a plough land. As much arable land as one plough,
with the animals that worked it, could cultivate in a year.

f Esc. temp. H. B, fil. E. Johannis. Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. No. ;o8,p. 8.

J Plac. Coron. 3 Edw. I. Eot. 20, dorso. Blount, " Ancient
Tenures," p. 230.

§ Camden, "Britannia," p. 525, and Blount, p. 257.

j| " Calend. Eot. Pat," 49. See also Eymer's " Foedera,'' sub anno.

THE WOLF. 143

all the Wolves he could find in the counties of
Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford. Salop, and Stafford,
and the bailiffs in the several counties were directed
to be ready and assist him. The commission, which
has been frequently referred to by different writers,
runs as follows : — •

" Pro Petro Corbet, de lupis capiendis.

"Rex, omnibus Ballivis, &c. Sciatis quod in-
j unximus delecto et fideli nostro Petro Corbet quod in
omnibus forestis et parcis et aliis locis intra comitatus
nostros Gloucester, Wygorn, Hereford, Salop, et
Stafford, in quibus lupi poterunt inveniri, lupos cum
hominibus canibus et ingeniis suis capiat et destruat
modis omnibus quibus viderit expedire.

" Et ideo vobis mandamus quod idem intendentes
et auxiliantes estis.

" Teste rege apud Westm. 14 Maii A.I>. 1281."*

In the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I. pre-
served in the British Museum (Add. MS. No. 7966)
anno 29 Edw. I. (1301), the following entry occurs : —

"April 29. To the huntsman of Sir Peter Corbet, deceased, for
bringing to the King the dogs which belonged to the said Peter at the
time of his death .... 6s. 8t7.

In 1285, William de Reynes held two carucatesf
of land at Boy ton, in the parish of Finchingfield, in
the county of Essex, by the serjeanty of keeping for
the king five Wolf-dogs (canes luporarios).\ In the

* Eymer's " Focdera," i. pt. 2, p. 192 ; ii. p. 168.
f See note on last page.

* Plac. Coron. 13 Edw. I. Essex; Blount, " Ancient Tenures," p. 236.

144 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

following year, John Engaine was returned as hold-
ing one carucate of land in Great Gidding, in the
county of Huntingdon, by the serjeanty of hunting
the Wolf, fox, and wild cat, and driving away all
vermin out of the forest of the king in that county.*
About the same time, Richard Engaine held one
hundred shillings of land in the town of Guedding, in
the county of Cambridge, by the serjeanty of taking
Wolves, and he was to do this service daily (et
facit servi* suum cotidie)^ from which it may be
inferred that Wolves at this date were particularly
troublesome. Indeed, it is recorded that during this
reign in a certain park at Farley the deer were
entirely destroyed by Wolves. J

In 1297 John Engaine died, seized, inter alia, of
certain lands in Pytesle, Northampton, found to be
held of the king by the service of hunting the Wolf, fox
[cat], badger [wild boar, and hare] ; and likewise the
manor of Great Gidding in com. Huntendon, held by
the service of catching the hare, fox, cat, and Wolf
within the counties of Huntendon, Northampton,
Buckingham, and Roteland.§

In the accounts of Bolton Priory, quoted in
Whitaker's "History of Craven" (p. 331), occur
entries in the years 1306-1307, of payments made in

* "Plac. Coron. 14 Edw. I. Rot. 7," dorso ; Blount, p. 230.

t " Testa de Nevil," p. 358 ; Blount, p. 262.

J " Will. Poer fecit parcum apud Farley et quod pater Comitis
Gilbert! de Clare comes Gloucestriae dedit ei quasdam feras ad prre -
dictum parcum instaurandum, quae ferae per lupos destruebantur."
1 8 Edw. I. (1290) Wygorn. rot. 50 in abbreviat. Eotul.

§ Dugdale's "Baronage," vol. i. p. 466. See also the Eotuli
Hundredorum, ii. p. 627.

THE WOLF. 145

reward for the slaughter of Wolves, as " Cuidam qui
occidit lupum" but the price paid to the slayer is not
stated. Whitaker in a note to this remarks : —
" Wolves, therefore, though rare, were not extinct
in Craven in the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury. This is an important circumstance."

1307-1327. In the fourth year of Edward II.
(1311) a composition was made between Sir John
de Mowbray, son and heir of Sir Roger de Mowbray,
of the one part, and the Abbot of Selby of the other
part, whereby the said Sir John quitclaimed and
released to the abbot all his right in the soil and
manor of Crowle and other places therein mentioned,
and the abbot and convent granted to the said Sir
John de Mowbray certain woods, saving their free
warren of goats, foxes, Wolves, conies, &c.*

The king's forest of the Peak in Derbyshire was
of great extent, and about this time was much in-
fested with Wolves. A family of the hereditary name
of Wolfhunt held lands by the service of keeping the
forest clear of these destructive animals.t From the
records in the Tower of London (13 Edw. II.) it
appears that in 1320 some persons held lands at
Wormhill, in the county of Derby, by the service of
hunting and taking Wolves, from whence they were
called Wolfhunt or Wolvehunt.

Mr. W. H. G. Bagshawe, of Ford Hall, Chapel-en-

* Burton, " Monasticon Eboracense," p. 389. The Abbots of Selby
and of St. Mary, at York, were the only two mitred abbots in York-
shire.

f 'The Local Laws, Courts, and Customs of Derbyshire,' " Journ.
Brit. Archseol. Assoc." vol. vii. p. 197.

146 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

le-Frith, Derbyshire, a descendant of the same family
as Mr. F. W. Bagshawe, the present owner of Worm-
hill Hall, in reply to inquiries on the subject, has been
good enough to write as follows : —

" With the particulars in Blount's ' Tenures ' I
have long been familiar, but I am sorry to say that
I cannot add to them. Wormhill Hall was never,
so far as I know, held under the tenure of destroying
Wolves, but it is most probable that a portion of the
lands there were originally held by the tenure of
preserving the king's 'verte and venyson' in his
forest of the Peak. There is a tradition that the
last Wolf in England was killed at Wormhill, but I
never saw any evidence of it, nor did I ever hear any
date assigned. In my pedigree of our family I find
a note to the effect that John de 1'Hall (the ancestor
of John de 1'Hall, whose daughter Alice was the wife
of Nicholas Bagshawe) was appointed a forester
(of fee, I suppose) to the king by deed dated 1349."*

In 1321 William Michell, son and heir of John
Michell, held a messuage and land at Middelton
Lillebon, co. Wilts, of the king in capite, by the
serjeanty of keeping his Wolf-dogs — per serjantiam
custodiendi canes luparios Eegis.^

1327-1377. So far as can be gathered from history,
it would seem that while stringent measures were
being devised for the destruction of Wolves in all or
most of the inhabited districts which they frequented,

* Camden, " Britannia," tit. Derbyshire, i. p. 591 ; Blount, " Ancient
Tenures," p. 250.

f Luparios elsewhere hiporarios ; Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. No. 134,
p. 80. Blount, " Ancient Tenures," p. 258.

THE WOLF. 147

in the less populous and more remote parts of the
country, steps were taken by such of the principal
landowners as were fond of hunting to secure their
own participation in the sport of finding and killing
them.

In Edward III.'s time, Conan, Duke of Brittany,
in 1342, gave pasture for cattle through all his new
forest at Richmond in Yorkshire to the inmates of the
Abbey of Fors in Wensleydale, forbidding them to use
any mastiffs to drive the Wolves from their pastures.'"'

In the same year, Alan, Earl of Brittany, gave
them common of pasture through all his forest of
" Wandesley-dale ;" and to cut as much grass for hay
as they might have occasion for, and also gave them
leave to take such materials out of the said forest
to build their houses, and for other uses ; and
such iron and lead as the monks found they might
apply to their own use ; and if the monks or their
servants found any flesh of wild beasts in the forest,
killed by Wolves, they might take it to their own use.f

In 1 348, we find that Alan, son and heir of Walter
de Wulf hunte, paid a fine to the king of 2s. 4^. for
his relief in respect of lands at Mansfield Woodhouse
in the county of Nottingham, which he held by the
service of hunting Wolves out of the forest of Shire-
wood, if he should find any of them. J

* Escheat, 15 & 16 Edw. III. No. 76, in Turr. Lond. See also
Burton, "Monasticon Eboracense," p. 370. The Abbey of Fors, in
Wensleydale, was founded in 1 145 (Whitaker).

•j- Burton, loc. cit.

J Determine Trin. anno 21 Edw. III. Rot. i. Harl. M.S. Brit.
Mus. No. 34, p. 166. Blount, " Ancient Tenures," p. 258.

L

r48 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Thomas Engaine, dying without issue in 1 368, was
found to be seized of 14 yardlands and meadow, and
1 45. 4-d. rent, in Pightesle, in the county of North-
ampton, held by the service of finding, at his own
proper costs, certain dogs for the destruction of
Wolves, foxes, martens, cats, and other vermin within
the counties of Northampton, Roteland, Oxford,
Essex, and Buckingham.*

1 377-1 399- In Richard II. 's reign Wolves must
have been common enough in the forests of York-
shire, for in the account-rolls of Whitby Abbey,
amongst the disbursements made between 1 394 and
1396, we find the following entry of a payment for
dressing Wolf skins : —

Pro tewyngf xiiij pellium luporum . . . . 10. ixrf.

Doubtless the skins of animals killed in some great
raid made upon them at the instigation of the
Abbey.

1399-1413. In Henry IV.'sreign, Sir Thomas de
Aylesbury, knight, and Catharine his wife, held of the
king, in capite, the manor of Laxton, inter alia, with
appurtenances in the county of Northampton, by
"grand serjeanty " — viz., by the service of taking-
Wolves, foxes, wild cats, and other vermin in the
counties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex,
Huntingdon, and Buckingham.!

Shakespeare has pictured wolves as existing in Kent

* Rot. fin. 42 Edw. III. m. 13. Dugdale's "Baronage," vol. i.
p. 467 ; and Blount, "Ancient Tenures," p. 231.

f To " tew," or " taw," an obsolete word signifying to beat and dress
leather with alum. Nares, " Glossary."

J Blount, op. cit. p. 260.

THE WOLF. 149

in the time of Henry VI. When the Duke of Suffolk
lands at night upon the shore near Dover, he hears

" Loud howling wolves arouse the jades
That drag the tragic melancholy night."

Second Part of Henry VI., act iv. sc. i.

This may or may not be a poetic license. At all
events, no evidence on the subject is now forth-
coming, and we must turn, therefore, to some more
reliable source of information.

1422-1461. In the eleventh year of Henry VI.
(1433), Sir Robert Plumpton, Knight, was seized of
one bovate of land in Mansfield Woodhouse, in the
county of Nottingham, called Wolf-hunt land, held
by the service of winding a horn and chasing or
frightening the Wolves in the forest of Shirewood.*
This tenure is particularly referred to by the Rev.
Samuel Pegge in his Paper " On the Horn as a
Charter or Instrument of Conveyance, "t A coloured
plate of an ancient horn of the kind referred to, in
the possession of the late Lord Ribblesdale, will be
found in Whitaker's " History and Antiquities of the
Deanery of Craven" (1805), p. 34.

In the seventeenth year of the reign of Henry VI.,
namely, in 1439, Robert Umfraville, a descendant, no
doubt, of the Robert de Umfraville mentioned in
1076, held the castle of Herbotell and manor of
Otterburn, of the king, in capite, by the service
of keeping the valley and liberty of Riddesdale,

* Escaet. 11 Hen. VI. n. 5. Blount, p. 312.

f " Archscologia," vol. iii. p. 3. See also Thoroton, " Autiq.
Nottingham," p, 273 ; and Strutt, " Sporta and Pastimes," p. 19.

L 2

1 5o EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

where the said castle and manor are situated, free
from Wolves and robbers.*

1461-1483. If no particular mention of Wolves is
to be met with in the days of Edward IV., his-
reign would nevertheless deserve notice here from
the fact that at this period lived Juliana Barnes,
or Berners, a lady of an ancient and illustrious house,
who was commonly styled the Diana of her age, and
who writ or compiled divers treatises on Hunting,
Hawking, Fishing, and Heraldry, f

In her "Book of St. Albans," written about 1481,
and first printed in 1486, she includes the Wolf
amongst the beasts of venery, and thus instructs her
readers on the subject : —

" Wheresoeure ye fare by fryth or by fell :
My dere chylde take hede how TristramJ cloo you tell,
How many manere bestys of venery there were :
Lysten to your dame, and she shall you lere. ,

Foure maner bestys of venery there are :
The fyrste of theym is the Jiarte, the seconde is the hare,
The ~boore is one of tho : the wulfc and not one mo."

The old books on hunting state that the season for
hunting the Wolf was between the 25th of December
and the 2$th of March. This of course was only
so long as Wolf-hunting was an amusement and a
royal sport. As soon as it became a necessity, and a
price was set on the animal's head, it was killed
whenever and wherever it could be found.

1485-1509. Some time between these two dates,

* Madox, " Baronia Anglica," p. 244.

f Longstaffe, " Memoirs of the Life of Ambrose Barnes" (Surtees
Society), 1867, p. 27.

J Manwood, in his " Forest Laws," mentions " Sir Tristram," an
ancient forester, in his worthy treatise of hunting.

THE WOLF. 151

•during the reign of Henry VII., it is probable that
the Wolf became finally extirpated in England,
although for nearly two centuries later, as will pre-
sently appear, it continued to hold out against its
persecutors in Scotland and Ireland. That it was
rare if not quite extinct in England about this time,
may be inferred from the circumstance that little or

A -WOLF-HUNT. FROM AN ENGRAVING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

no mention is made of it either in this or any
subsequent reign. It is true Professor Newton,
.in his "Zoology of Ancient Europe," has stated
(p. 24) that the Wolf was found in the North
<>f England in the reign of Henry VIII, a statement
which has been also advanced, or copied, by other

1 5 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

writers,* but we have not met with any proof of this.
Indeed, Professor Newton has lately been good
enough to inform us that he has forgotten his-
authority for the statement, and thinks it possible a
reference to the MS. of his essay, which was not
preserved, would show that, by a typographical
error, the numerals VIII. were printed for VII.

In Longstaffe's " Memoirs of the Life of Ambrose
Barnes,"t it is stated that " his immediate ancestors
held an estate of 500^. a year of the Earls of Rutland
and Belvoir, one of whom (a Barnes of Hatford near
Barnard Castle) was commonly called Ambrose ' Roast
wolf/ from the many wolves which he hunted
down and destroyed in the time of Henry VII. "|

In a footnote to this passage, the editor remarks
that " the statement must be taken cum grano salis.
Belvoir is not a title, and the Manners family did
not become Earls of Rutland until 1525, in the reign
of Henry VIII. § On the other hand, the period of
VII. is late for wolves, although Richmondshire
might well yield some of the latest specimens in
England. Doubtless they were familiarly associated
with wildness of country long after their extinction.
Many a tradition would linger in the families of their
destroyers. Ambrose ' Roast Wolf ' was probably a
real person of some date or other."

* Wise's " New Forest, its History and its Scenery," p. 14.

f "Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Ambrose Barnes, late Merchant
and sometime Alderman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne," p. 28. (Surtees
Society, 1867.)

J See also Longstaffe's " Durham before the Conquest," p. 49.

§ It is possible that a typographical error may have been made here
also, and that Ambrose " Eoast Wolf " may have lived in the reign of
Henry VIII., not Henry VII.

THE WOLF. 153

Within the precincts of Saver nake Forest, the pro-
perty of the Marquis of Ailesbury, near Marlborough,
there is still existing a very old barn and part of a
house, known as " Wolf Hall/' or " Wulf-hall." It
was the ancient residence of the Seymours, and when
Henry VIII. married Lady Jane Seymour it was
here that he came a-courting, here that he was
married, and in this barn the wedding festivities are
said to have taken place. In reply to an inquiry
whether any tradition exists in the county to explain
the name " Wolf Hall," the Rev. A. C. Smith, of
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, has obligingly written as
follows : — " It is supposed to have had nothing to
do with the animal 'Wolf/ but rather with ' Ulf/
the owner's name, if there was such a person, and
in the Domesday record it is spelt 'Ulfhall.'* At
the same time I must add that Leland in his Itine-
rary (ix. 36) calls it in Latin ' Lupinum villa
splendida,' and again in his poem on the birth of the
Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VI.,
Incoluit villam, quce nomine dicta lupinum.'^ Bishop
Turner also ("Bibl. Brit. Hibern.") speaks of certain
epistles written by Edward, the future Protector,
son of John Seymour, ' de Puteo Lupino, vulgo Wolf-
hall' So I am not so certain that the derivation is
not from the animal. At all events, it is quite clear
that no place could be more fitted for Wolves than
the wild extensive forest of Savernake hard by ;
indeed, if Wolves existed at all in England now, that
would be just the very harbour for them."

* See Wilts Archaeological Magazine, June 1875, p. 143.

f " Genethliacon illustrissimiEluardi Principis Cambrioe," 1543-

1 5 4 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMAL S.

Many names of places compounded with "Wolf"
still remain to attest probably the former existence of
this animal in the neighbourhood. Wolmer — i.e.,
Wolfmere or Wolvemere — is an instance of this.
Wolfer ton is another. Besides these, we have Wolfscote,
Derbyshire ; Wolfharncote, Warwickshire ; Wolfer-
low, Hereford ; Wolfs Castle, Pembroke ; and Wolf-
pits, [Radnorshire ; the last named very suggestive, as
indicating probably a former burial-place for the
carcases of Wolves brought in during the period of
their persecution in Wales. In the parish of West
Chiltington, near Pulborough, Sussex, on the south
edge of the lower greensand formation which over-
looks the Weald, is a spot called " Wolfscrag," where,
tradition says, the last Wolf of the Weald was killed.
Three fields in the neighbourhood still bear the respec-
tive names of Great Den, Little Den, and Far Den
fields.

Wolfenden in Rossendale, and Wolfstones in
Cliviger (Lancashire), both attest the existence of
this animal there when those names were imposed.*
Many other instances, no doubt, might be adduced.
In the parish of Beckermont, Cumberland, is a small
hill, commonly called " Wotobank." A traditionary
story, of great antiquity, says that a lord of Becker-
mont and his lady and servants were one time
hunting the Wolf; during the chase this lord missed
his lady ; after a long and painful search, they at last,

* Whitaker, " History of Whalley," i. p. 74. " The first mention
of Rossendale by name is in the memorable story of Liwlphus, Dean
of Whalley, who, at a place called Ledmesgreve, cut off the tail of a
Wolf in hunting" (torn. cit. p. 316.)

THE WOLF. 155

to his inexpressible sorrow, found her body lying on
this hill or bank, slain by a Wolf, and the ravenous
beast in the very act of tearing it to pieces, till
frightened by the dogs. In the first transports of
his grief the first words that he uttered were, " Woe
to this bank !" since which time it has been com-
monly called " Wotobank."*

In Lancashire, Dr. Whitaker particularly mentions
the great forests of Blackburnshire and Bowland as
" among the last retreats of the Wolf."t

The " wolds" of Yorkshire appear, from the dates
of parish books, to have been infested with Wolves
perhaps later than any other part of England.

" In the entries at Flixton, Hackston, and Folk-
ston, in the East Riding of Yorkshire," says Elaine,
" are still to be seen memoranda of payments made
for the destruction of Wolves at a certain rate per
head. They used to breed in the ' cars' below,
amongst the rushes, furze, and bogs, and in the
night-time to come up from their dens ; and, unless
the sheep had been previously driven into the town,
or the shepherds were indefatigably vigilant, great
numbers were sure to be destroyed." j

Apparently, however, some error has been made in
the orthography of the localities referred to. Flixton
is in the parish of Folkton, near Scarboro'. We can-

* Hutchinson, " Hist, and Antiq. Cumberland" (1794), vol. ii. p. 16.
Upon tins tradition was founded an " elegant elegiac tale " by Mrs.
Cowley, which will be found prefixed to the second volume of the
work quoted.

f Op. cit. i. p. 205. The last herd of red deer was destroyed there
in 1805.

J Elaine's "Encyclop. Rural Sports" (1858), p. 105.

156 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

not find that there is any such place as " Hackston ;"
but Staxton adjoins the other places named, and is
in the parish of Willerby. The Vicar of Willerby,
the Rev. G. Day, at our request most obligingly
instituted a search, but could not succeed in finding
any parish books of any kind to throw light on the
subject. He writes : " There are no gentry resident in
this parish, and the churchwardens have been tenant-
farmers for generations. Of course great changes
have occurred within the last, say, fifty years, amongst
these tenant-farmers. Many names have altogether
disappeared from the parish roll, and it is thought
probable by some of the old farmers here that church-
wardens in past days having left their farms and
gone to other parishes took the parish books with
them, and that these have either been destroyed or
are lying hid in some descendant's lumber-room."

In a Paper " On Druidical Remains in the Parish
of Halifax, Yorkshire," by the Rev. John Watson,
M.A., F.S.A.,* the author says that " in the township
of Barkisland is a small ring of stones, now called
(1771) by the name of the wolf -fold. It is but a
few yards in diameter, but the exact measurement of
it I have lost or mislaid.

" The stones of which it consists are not erect, but
lie in a confused heap like the ruins of a building.
This place I took at first, from its name, to have been
either a decoy for the taking of wolves, or a place to
secure them in for the purpose of hunting ; but
observing that Mr. Borlase (p. 198) has attributed

* "Archa?ologia," vol. ii. p. 355.

THE WOLF. 15;

some such little cirques to the Druids, I have men-
tioned it here for the further examination of anti-
quaries, who are desired to take notice that if ever
there was a wall here of any strength, the best stones
must have been carried away ; for what are left are
extremely rude, and totally unfit of themselves to
compose any sort of building ; also that these few
insignificant pebbles, as they now appear, must be of
considerable antiquity, as well as once have been of
considerable account, because they give the name of
Ringstone Edge to a large tract of land around them."

The late Wm. Hamper, F.S.A., in some learned
observations on certain ancient pillars of memorial
called Hoar Stones ("Archseologia," xxv.), gives a list
of such as were known to him, and, in particular,
mentions (p. 53) the wolf -stone, a single merestone,
one immense natural block on Dr. Whitaker's estate,
which, in all probability, was erected to commemorate
some notable slaughter of Wolves in days gone by.

The fur of the Wolf was formerly used for trimming
robes, and was employed for this purpose at least as
late as the time of Elizabeth. In a will dated 1573
preserved in the Registry of the Prerogative Court
of Canterbury the following clause occurs : —

" Also I give unto my son Tyble my sherte gown
faced with Wolf and laid with Billement's lace ; also I
give unto my brother Cowper my other sherte gown
faced with foxe ; also I give unto Thomas Walker
my night gown faced with coney, with one lace also,
and my ready [ruddy] colored hose."

Where the testator procured the Wolf- skin it is of

i58 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

course impossible to say, but it is noticeable that no
foreign furs (such as sable, ermine, and lynx) are
mentioned in his Will ; the only furs disposed of
besides Wolf being those of indigenous animals— the
fox and the coney.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. — SCOTLAND.

In a preceding page it was incidentally remarked
that the Wolf survived in Scotland to a much later
date than was the case in England. The reason is
pretty obvious. Long after the animal had been extir-
pated in England the condition of the country in
North Britain remained eminently suited to its nature.
Vast tracts of forest and moor, rugged and well-nigh
impenetrable in parts, entire districts of unreclaimed
and uncultivated land, the absence of roads, and the
consequent difficulty of communication between scat-
tered and thinly populated hamlets, long contributed
to shelter the Wolf not only from final extinction but
from the incessant persecution which had driven it
from the south.

The aspect of the country in Scotland at the
date to which we refer may be imagined from a
remark of John Taylor, the Water Poet, who in 1 6 1 8
travelled on foot from London to Edinburgh. When
visiting Braemar, he says, " I was the space of twelve
days before I saw either house, cornfield, or habita-
tion of any creature, but deer, wild horses, Wolves,
and such like creatures, which made me doubt that I
should never have seen a house again."

It must not be supposed, however, that the Wolf

THE WOLF. 159

at any time lived unmolested in Scotland. As
the herdsman's foe, it was always regarded as a beast
to be pursued and killed whenever and wherever
practicable, and from the earliest times the chase
of the Wolf was considered by kings and nobles
to be one of the most exciting and enjoyable of field-
sports.

We learn from Holinshed that Dorvadil, the fourth
King of the Scots, u set all his pleasure on hunting
and keeping of houndes and greyhoundes, ordayning*
that every householder should find him two houndes
and one greyhounde. If a hunter chanced in following-
the game to lose an eye or a limme, so that he were
not able to helpe himselfe after that time, he made
a statute that he should be founde of the common
treasury. He that killed a Wolf should have an oxe
for his paines. This beast, indeed, the Scottish men
even from the beginning used to pursue in al they
might devise, because the same is suche an enemie
to cattayle, wherein consisted the chiefest portion of
all their wealth and substance."*"

Of a later king, Ederus, we are told that his
" chiefe delighte was altogyther in hunting and
keeping of houndes and greyhoundes, to chase and
pursue wild beastes, and namely the Woolfe the
herdsman's foe, by means whereof his advancement
was muche the more acceptable amongst the nobles,
who in those dayes were who! lye given to that kynde
of pleasure and pastyme."t

* Holinshed's " Chronicles of Scotland," 1577, p. 13.
f Holinshed, torn. cit. p. 27

160 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Ferquhard II., who died A.D. 668, is said to have
proved so bad a king that Colman, Bishop of Liridis-
farne, declared the vengeance of God would overtake
him. " And sure his wordes proved true ; for within
a, moneth after, as the same Ferquhard followed in
r.hase of a Wolfe, the beast being enraged by pursuite
i)f the houndes, flew back uppon the king, and
snatching at him, did wounde and byte him righte
sore in one of his sides, immediately where-
upon, whether through anguishe of his hurt, or
by some other occasion, he fell into a most filthie
disease."*

The sport enjoyed in Scotland in former days
must have been incomparable. Bellenden, the trans-
lator of Hector Boece, says, that in the forests of
Caledonia there were "gret plente of haris, hartis,
hindis, dayis, rais, Wolffis, wild hors, and toadis,"
(foxes), and he particularly mentions "the Wolffis " as
being "rycht noysum to the tame bestiall in all
partis of Scotland."

In the reign of Malcolm IV. (1153-1165) Kobert
de Avenel granted to the monks of Melrose the right
of pasturage in his lands in Eskdale, reserving to
himself the privileges of the feudal baron, to pursue
the wild boar, the deer, and the stag. One of his
successors questioned several of the claims to which
the grantees considered themselves entitled, and it
was ultimately decided in 1235, in presence of King
Alexander II., that they had no right to hunt over the
lands in question, and were restricted from setting

* Holinslied, p. 148.

THE WOLF. 161

traps, excepting for Wolves* It seems that, in order
to protect their flocks, the monks of Melrose were
in the habit of setting traps for Wolves as early as the
reign of W illiam the Lion (1165-1214)^ Wolfclyde,
a part of the barony of Culter, in Lanarkshire, passed
by grant to the Abbey of Melrose in 14314

In a grant of Alexander II. (1214-1249) to the
monks of Melrose, in Ettrick Forest, mention is
made of "Wulfhope," a name still familiar in the
south of Roxburghshire^

In 1283, there was an allowance made for " one
hunter of Wolves" at Stirling. ||

In 1427, in the reign of James I. of Scotland, an
Act was passed for the destruction of wolves in that
kingdom. Further Acts with the like object were
passed in 1457, in 1525, and in 1577. The Act of
1525, however, is merely a modernized version of
the law of 1427, which is referred to in the statute
of 1577 as "the auld act made tharon."

The law required " that ilk baron within his barony
in gangand time of the year sail chase and seek the
quhelpes of Wolves and gar slay them. And the baron
sail give to the man that slays the Woolfe in his
barony and brings the baron the head, twa shillings.
And when the baron ordains to hunt and chase the
Woolfe, the tenants sail rise with the baron. And
that the barons hunt in their baronies and chase the

* Morton's " Monastic Annals of Teviotdale," pp. 273, 274.

f Chalmers' "Caledonia," ii. p. 132. Chart. Mel. 91.

J Morton, op. cit. p. 276.

§ Chalmers' " Caledonia," ii. p. 132.

|| limes' " Scotland in the Middle Ages," p. 125.

1 62 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Woolfes four times a year, and als oft as onie Woolfe
beis seen within the barony. And that na man seek
the Woolfe with schott, but allanerly in the time of
hunting them." The duty of summoning the people
for a Wolf-hunt devolved upon the " schireffs" or
"bailyis," three times a year, between St. Mark's Day
(April 25th) and Lammas (August ist), for, as the
Act states, "that is the tyme of their quhelpes."
The penalty for disregarding this summons was " ane
wedder," " quhatever he be that rysse not." On
the other hand, it was enacted that whoever slew a
Wolf " sail haif of ilk householder of that parochin
that the Woolfe is slayne within, a penny."

The Act of James II. 's time (1457), provided
that "they that slay is ane Woolfe sail bring the
head to the schireffe, baillie, or baronne, and he sail
be debtour to the slayer for the summe foresaide.
And quhatsumever hee bee that slayis ane Woolfe,
and bringis the head to the schireffe, lord, baillie, or
baronne, he sail have sex penny es."*

In some active instances, the exertion of these
statutes might have cleared local districts, and a
remarkable example of success was given by a woman
— Lady Margaret Lyon, Baroness to Hugh third
Lord Lovat. This lady having been brought up in
the low country, at a distance from the Wolves, was
probably the more affected by their neighbourhood,
and caused them to be so vigorously pursued in the

* "Laws of the Parliament of Scotland," folio, 1781, pp. 18, 19.
See also Glendook's Scots Acts, 7 James I. c. 104, and 14 James II.
c. 88.

THE WOLF. 163

Aird, that they were exterminated out of their prin-
cipal hold in that range. According to the Wardlaw
MS., "she was a stout bold woman, a great huntress;
she would have travelled in our hills a-foot, and
perhaps outwearied good footmen. She purged Mount
Caplach of the Wolves." Mount Caplach is the
highest range of the Aird running parallel to the
Beauly Frith, behind Moniach and Lentron. Though
the place of the lady's seat is now forgotten, its
existence is still remembered, and said to have been
at a pass where she sat when the woods were driven
for the Wolves, not only to see them killed, but to
shoot at them with her own arrows. The period of
her repression of the Wolves is indicated by the suc-
cession of her husband to the lordship of Lovat,
which was in 1450, and it is therefore probable that
the " purging " of Mount Caplach was begun soon
after that date.*

Such partial expulsions, however, had little effect
upon the general " herd " of Wolves, which, fostered
by the great Highland forests, increased at intervals
to an alarming extent. During the reign of James
IV. (1488-1513), rewards continued to be paid for
the slaughter of Wolves in Scotland, and we learn
the value of a Wolf's head in those days from the
accounts of the Lord High Treasurer.! For in-

* MS. History of the Frasers, in the library of Lord Lovat (p. 44).
Also the curious account of the North Highlands called the Wardlaw
MS. in the possession of Mr. Thompson, Inverness (p. 67).

f Extracts from these accounts will be found in Pitcairn's " Criminal
Trials in Scotland," vol. i. p. 1 16.

M

1 64 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

stance, under date "October 24th, U91/' we find
this entry : —

' Item, til a fallow brochtye king ij wolfis in Lythgow . . . Vs."

In the time of James V. their numbers and ravages
were formidable. At that period great part of Ross,
Inverness, almost the whole of Crornarty, and krge
tracts of Perth and Argyleshire, were covered with
forests of pine, birch, and oak, the remains of which
continued to our time in Braemar, Invercauld, Rothie-
murchus, Arisaig, the banks of Loch Ness, Glen
Strath-Farar, and Glen Game ; and it is known
from history and tradition that the braes of Moray,
Nairn, and Glen Urcha, the glens of Locliaber, and
Loch Erroch, the moors of Rannach, and the hills of
Ardgour were covered in the same manner.* All
these clouds of forests were more or less frequented
by Wolves. Roethius mentions their numbers and
devastation in his time;t and in various districts where
they last remained, the traditions of their haunts
are still familiarly remembered. Loch Sloigh and
Strath Earn are still celebrated for their resort, and
in 1848 there were living in Lochaber old people
who related from their predecessors, that, when all
the country from the Lochie to Loch Erroch was
covered by a continuous pine forest, the eastern
tracts upon the Blackwater and the wild wilderness
stretching towards Rannach were so dense and

* MacFarlane's Geographical Collections. MS. Bibl. Factilt. Jurid.
ii. 192. Quoted in Stuart's " Lays of the Deer Forest."
t " Scot. Hist." fol. 7.

THE WOLF. 165

infested by the rabid droves, that they were almost
impassable.*

In 1528 the Earl of A thole entertained the king,
James V., with a great hunt which lasted three
days. "It is said, at this tyme, in Atholl and
Stratherdaill boundis, thair was slaine threttie scoir
of hart and hynd, with other small beasties, sich as
roe and roebuck, Woulff, fox, and wild cattis."t

A story is told of one John Eldar, a clergyman of
Caithness, who on the death of James V. journeyed
to England to present to Henry VIII. a project for the
union of the two kingdoms. Being asked to ex-
plain the meaning of the name " redshanks," at that
time given to the Highlanders, he said, " They 'call
us in Scotland, ' redshanks/ please it your Majesty
to understand, that we of all people can tolerate,
suffer, and away best with cold : for both summer
and winter (except when the frost is most vehement)
going always bare-legged and bare-footed, our de-
light and pleasure is in hunting of red deer, Wolves,
foxes, and graies [badgers] whereof we abound and
have great plenty. Therefore, in so much as we use
and delight so to go always, the tender, delicate
gentlemen of Scotland call us 'redshanks. "'J

Harrison, who wrote in Elizabeth's time, sa^s that
though the English " may safelie boast of their
securitie in respect to wild animals, yet cannot the
Scots do the like in everie point within their king-

* Stuart's " Lays of the Deer Forest," vol. ii. pp. 231, 232.
f Robert Lindsay, " Chronicles of Scotland," ii. p. 346.
J Pinkerton's " History of Scotland," ii. p. 396.

M 2

1 66 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

dome, sith they have greevous Woolfes and cruell
foxes, beside some other of like disposition con-
tinuallie conversant among them, to the general
hindrance of their husbandmen and no small damage
unto the inhabiters of those quarters."*

William Barclay, who was a native of Aberdeen-
shire, and spent the early part of his life at the Court
of Queen Mary, accompanied her Majesty on an
excursion to the Highlands, and has left a curious
accountf of a royal hunt at which he was present,
and which was organized for the Queen by John,
fourth Earl of Athole, in 1 563. Two thousand High-
landers were employed to drive all the deer from
the woods and hills of Athole, Badenach, Mar,
Moray, and the surrounding country. After men-
tioning incidentally that the Queen ordered one of
the fiercest dogs to be slipped at a Wolf — " Laxatus
enirn reginte jussu, atque immissus in lupum, insignis
admodum ac ferox cants " — Barclay concludes his
account of the "drive" with the statement that
there were killed that very day 360 deer, 5 Wolves,
and some roes.

According to Holinshed, Wolves were very de-
structive to the flocks in Scotland during the reign
of James VI. in 1577. At this time they were so
numerous throughout the greater part of the High-
lands, that in the winter it was necessary to provide
houses, or " spittals " as they were termed, to afford

* Harrison's "Description of England," prefixed to Holinshed's
" Chronicles," i. p. 378.
t "De Eegno et regali Potestate," Ac., 4to, 1600, p. 279.

THE WOLF. 167

lodgings to travellers who might be overtaken by
night where there was no place of shelter. Hence
the origin of the Spittal of Glen Shae, and similar
appellations in other places.

Camden, whose "Britannia" was published in
1586, asserts that Wolves at that date were common
in many parts of Scotland, and particularly refers to
Strathnavern.

" The county/' he says, " hath little cause to brag
of its fertility. By reason of the sharpness of the
air it is very thinly inhabited, and thereupon ex-
tremely infested with the fiercest of Wolves, which,
to the great damage of the county, not only furi-
ously set upon cattle, but even upon the owners
themselves, to the manifest danger of their lives.
In so much that not only in this, but in many other
parts of Scotland, the sheriffs and respective inha-
bitants are bound by Act of Parliament, in their
several sheriflfdoms, to go a hunting thrice every year
to destroy the Wolves and their whelps."*

Bishop Lesley, writing towards the close of the
sixteenth century, complains much of the prevalence
of Wolves at that period, and of their ferocity, f

" About this tune there was nothing but the petty
flock of sheep, or herd of a few milk -cows, grazed
round the farm-house, and folded nightly for fear of
the Wolf, or more cunning depredators. "|

* Camden, "Britannia," vol. ii. p. 1279. Bishop Gibson, in
his edition, has a marginal note to this passage — " No Wolves now
in Scotland (1772).

f " De Origine, Moribus et Eebus Scotorum."

\ Irvine's " Scotch Legal Antiquities," p. 264.

1 68 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Towards the end of the sixteenth and beginning of
the seventeenth centuries large tracts of forests in the
Highlands were purposely cut down or burned, as
the only means of expelling the Wolves which there
abounded.

" These hills and glens and wooded wilds can tell
How many wolves and boars and deer then fell."

CAMPBELL'S Grampians Desolate, p. 102.

" On the south side of Beann Nevis, a large pine
forest, which extended from the western braes of
Lochaber to the Black Water and the mosses of
Rannach, was burned to expel the Wolves. In the
neighbourhood of Loch Sloi, a tract of woods nearly
twenty miles in extent was consumed for the same
purpose."*

John Taylor, the Water Poet, who made his
"Pennyles Pilgrimage" into Scotland in 1618, saw
Wolves in Braemar. He writes : " My good Lord of
Mar having put me into shape, I rode with him from
his house, where I saw the ruins of an old castle,
called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by
King Malcolm Canmore (for a hunting-house), who
reigned in Scotland when Edward the Confessor,
Harold, and N.orman William reigned in England.
I speak of it because it was the last house that I saw
in those parts ; for I was the space of twelve days
after before I saw either house, cornfield, or habita-
tion of any creature, but deer, wild horses, Wolves,

* Notes to Sobieski Stuart's "Last Deer of Beann Doran." See his
"Poems" published in 1822 tinder the assumed name of James Hay
Allan.

THE WOLF. 169

und such-like creatures, which made me doubt that
I should never have seen a house again."*

Years later, as we learn from Sir Robert Gordon,
the Wolf was still included amongst the wild animals
of Sutherlandshire. He says the forests and
" schases " in that county were " verie profitable for
feiding of bestiall, and delectable for hunting, being
full of reid deer and roes, Woulffs, foxes, wyld catts,
brocks, skuyrells. whittrets, weasels, otters, martrixes,
hares, and fumarts."t

In 1621 the price paid in Sutherlandshire for the
killing of one Wolf according to statute was
61. 136-. 4d.

Wolf-skins are mentioned in 1661 in a Customs
Roll of Charles II., J whence it appears that two
ounces of silver were paid " for ilk two daker."§

Twenty years later, if we are to credit the state-
ment of Sir Robert ISibbald, whose " Scotia Illus-
trata " was published in 1684, the animal had
become extinct. His words are : Lupi olini frequentes
want, quidarn etiam de Caledoniis ursis loquuntur.

* " The Pennyles Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perambulation of
John Taylor, alias the King's Majesties Water Poet. How he travailed
on foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland. With his descrip-
tion of his entertainment in all places of his journey and a true report
of the unmatchable hunting in the Brea of Marre and Badenoch in
Scotland." 4to, London, 1681.

t " Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, from its
origin to the year 1630."

J See Glendook's " Scots Acts," Charles IT., p. 36.

§ The word " daker" or " dicker" (Greek Secca, ten) is still in use in
the leather trade, and means a roll of ten skins. It was anciently
spelt " dyker" or " dykker," and the market-toll was a penny each
"dyker." See the Durham Household Book, 1530-1534, pp. 107,205,
where this word freqtiently occurs.

1 7 o EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Scd horum genus deletum et ex insuld exterminatum

&t;>*

Pennant states that the Wolf became extinct in
Scotland in 1680, when the last of the race was
slain by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel.t He adds
that he had travelled " into almost every corner of
that country, but could not learn that there remained
even the memory of these animals among the oldest
people."!

From more recent investigation, however, it is
clear that Sir Robert Sibbald and Pennant were
both mistaken, for not only were Wolves slain
in Scotland subsequently to 1680, but numerous
traditions concerning these animals survived in
the country to at least as recent a date as 1848.

Traditions. — In a Gaelic forest lay " of a remote
period, the date and author of which are uncertain,"
the Wolf is thus referred to as inhabiting the ancient
pine woods of Scotland : —

" CM mi Sgbrr-eild' air bruaich a' ghlinn'
An goir a' chuthag gu-binn an dos.
'Us gorm mheall-aild' nam mile guibhas
Nan lub, nan earba, 's nan Ion."

" I see the ridge of hinds, the steep of the sloping glen
The wood of cuckoos at its foot,
The blue height of a thousand pines,
Of wolves, and roes, and elks.§

* " Scotia Illustrata, sive Prodromus Historise Naturalis," folior
1684, pars ii. p. 9.

f Surtees gives the date of the death of the last Wolf in Scotland as
1682. "History and Antiquities of the County of Durham,"vol. ii. p. 172.

J "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 88; and "Tour in Scotland,"
vol. i. p. 206.

§ From 'The Aged Bard's Wish,' given in Stuart's " Lays of the-
Deer Forest," ii. p. 9.

THE WOLF. 171

Other Gaelic names for the Wolf are madadh
alluidh, commonly used ; faol chu, and alia mhadadh,
all of which are composed of an epithet and a word
which now means dog.* It is also called faol and
mac tire, " earth's son."t

In Scrope's " Days of Deer- Stalking" (p. 109) is
related an adventure with a Wolf that happened to
Macpherson of Braekaely, when he had charge of the
forest of Benalder, and was furnished to the author
by Cluny Macpherson, chief of Clanchattan.

" He sallied forth one morning, as he was wont, in
quest of venison, accompanied by his servant. In
the course of their travel, they found a Wolf den — a
Wolf being at that time by no means a rarity in the
forest. Macpherson asked his servant whether he
would prefer going into the den to destroy the cubs,
or remaining outside to guard against the approach
of the old ones. The servant, preferring what
appeared to be an uncertain to a certain danger,
said he would remain without ; but here Sandy had
miscalculated, for, to his great dismay, the dam came
raging to the mouth of the cave, which no sooner did
he see than he took to his heels incontinently,
without even warning his master of the danger.
Macpherson, however, being an active, resolute man,
and expert at his weapons, succeeded in killing the
old Wolf as well as the cubs."

This Macpherson of Braekaely was commonly

* Pinker-ton's " Enquiry into the Early History of Scotland," vol. ii.
P- 85-
t Campbell's " Tales of the West Highlands," vol. i. p. 274.

1 7 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

called Callum Beg, or little Malcolm ; and there is
reason to believe that he was one of those who
fought in the famous battle of the Inch of Perth in
the reign of Robert III. (1390-1406.)

In the districts where Wolves last abounded, says
Stuart in the " Lays of the Deer Forest," many
traditions of their history and haunts have descended
to our time. The greatest number preserved in one
circle were in the neighbourhood of Strath Earn.

At Inver-Rua, on the Spean, and consequently
within the lands of Keppach, there lived a Campbell
of the Slioched Chailein Mhic-Dhonnacha, or Glen
Urcha race. Although thus a tenant of one of the
principal branches of the Clan Donald, and removed
to the distance of forty miles from his cean tigfie, he
continued to pay his " calps " to his blood chief, the
Knight of Loch Awe. This tax was a heifer, which
was paid annually, and it happened one year that a
short time before it fell due, the beast was killed on
her pasture and half eaten by a Wolf. Campbell
left what remained to tempt his return, and on the
following night, watching the carcase, he shot the
Wolf from behind a stone. Not being able, however,
to afford another " calp," he flayed the dead heifer,
and sent the torn hide to MacChailein Mhic-
Donnacha, with a message that it was all which he
had to show for his " calp ;" upon which the chief
observed, that he had sent sufficient parchment to
write his discharge.

This is said to have happened in the time of Sir
Duncan Campbell, called " Donacha dub/i a' Cur-

THE WOLF. 173

radid" "Black Duncan of the Hood," so called from
having been the last person of his rank who bore the
old Highland hood in Argyllshire, and who lived in
the reign of James VI. (1567-1603).

Several traditions relative to Wolves are evidences
of the accuracy with which oral relations have been
transmitted through many generations, which is
exemplified by the familiarity and fidelity with which
they retain allusions to objects and customs disused
for two hundred years.

An example of this occurs in an account of the
slaughter of a remarkable Wolf killed by one of the
lairds of Chisholm in Gleann Chon-fhiadh, or the
Wolves' Glen, a noted retreat of these animals in
the sixteenth century.

The animal in question had made her den in a
"earn," or pile of loose rocks, whence she made
excursions in every direction until she became the
terror of the country. At length the season of her
cubs increasing her ferocity, and having killed some
of the neighbouring people, she attracted the enter-
prise of the Laird of Chisholm and his brother, then
two gallant young hunters, and they resolved to
attempt her destruction. For this they set off
alone from Strath Glass, and having tracked her
to her den, discovered by her traces that she was
abroad ; but detecting the little pattering feet of the
cubs in the sand about the mouth of the den, the
elder crept into the chasm with his drawn dirk, and
began the work of vengeance on the litter. While
he was thus occupied, the Wolf returned, and infu-

174 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

riated by the expiring yelps of her cubs, rushed at
the entrance, regardless of the younger Chisholm,
•who made a stroke at her with his spear, but such
was her velocity, that he missed her as she darted
past, and broke the point of his weapon. His
brother, however, met the animal as she entered, and
being armed with the left-handed Idmhainn chruaidh,
or steel gauntlet, much used by the Highlanders and
Irish, as the Wolf rushed open-mouthed upon him,
he thrust the iron fist into her jaws, and stabbed
her in the breast with his dirk, while his brother,
striking at her flank with the broken spear, after
a desperate struggle she was drawn out dead.

The spear and the left-handed gauntlet referred to
in this tradition are arms mentioned, by Spencer,
Leslie, and other authorities, as characteristic of the
Highlanders and Irish in the days of Queen Mary.*

It is true they retained the use of such weapons
as late as their muster called the " Highland Host "
in i6/8.t But no such remains appeared at Cillie-
chranchie, and it is therefore probable that the story
has descended from the time of Charles II.

Another story is on record of a Wolf killed by a
woman of Cre-lebhan, near Strui, on the north side of
Strath Glass. She had gone to Strui a little before
Christmas to borrow a girdle (a thick circular plate
of iron, with an iron loop handle at one side for lift-
ing, and used for baking bread). Having procured it,

* See Spencer's " Views of Ireland;" Derrick's " Image of Ireland ;"
Leslie, " De Origine, Moribus et Rebus Scotorum ;" and a print in the
Douce Collection, Bodl. Lib. G-. vi. 47.

f Wodrow MS. Bibl. Facult. Jurid., xcix. No. 29.

THE WOLF. 175

and being on her way home, she sat down upon an old
earn to rest and gossip With a neighbour, when sud-
denly a scraping of stones and rustling of dead leaves
were heard, and the head of a Wolf protruded from a
crevice at her side. Instead of fleeing in alarm, how-
ever, " she dealt him such a blow on the skull with
the full swing of her iron discus, that it brained him
on the stone which served for his emerging head."

This tradition was probably one of the latest in the
district, and seems to have belonged to a period
when the Wolves were near their end. Their last
great outbreak in the time of Queen Mary led to
more vigorous measures, which in the time of
Charles II. reduced their ranks to so small a number
that in some districts their extinction is believed to
have followed soon after that period. Thus, in
Lochaber, the last in that part of the country is said
to have been killed by Sir Ewen Cameron in 1680,
which Pennant misunderstood to have been the last
of the species in Scotland.*

Some traditionary notices there are of the destruc-
tion of the last Wolves seen in Sutherlandshire,
consisting of four old ones and some whelps which
were killed about the same time at three different
places, — at Auchumore in Assynt, in Halladale, and
in Glen Loth — widely distant from each other, and
as late as between the years 1690 and i/oo.

The death of the last Wolf and her cubs on the

* In the Sale Catalogue of the " London Mnsenm" which was
disposed of by auction in April, 1818, there is the following entry:
«' Lot 832. Wolf— a noble animal in a large glass case. The last Wolf
killed in Scotland by Sir E. Cameron."

1 7 6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

eastern coast of Sutherlandshire, says Scrope, was
attended with remarkable circumstances.

"A man named Poison, of Wester Helmsdale,
accompanied by two lads, one of them his son and
the other an active herdboy, tracked a Wolf to a
rocky mountain gully which forms the channel of the
Burn of Sledale in Glen Loth. Here he discovered a
narrow fissure in the midst of large fragments of rock,
which led apparently to a larger opening or cavern
below, which the Wolf might use as his den. The
two lads contrived to squeeze themselves throng] i
the fissure to examine the interior, whilst Poison
kept guard on the outside.

" The boys descended through the narrow passage
into a small cavern, which was evidently a Wolfs den,
for the ground was covered with bones and horns of
animals, feathers, and eggshells, and the dark space
was somewhat enlivened by five or six active Wolf
cubs. Poison desired them to destroy these ; and soon,
after he heard their feeble howling. Almost at the
same time, to his great horror, he saw approaching
him a full-grown Wolf, evidently the dam, raging-
furiously at the cries of her young. As she attempted
to leap down, at one bound Poison instinctively threw
himself forward and succeeded in catching a. firm hold
of the animal's long and bushy tail, just as the fore-
part of her body was within the narrow entrance of
the cavern. He had unluckily placed his gun against
a rock when aiding the boys in their descent, and
could not now reach it. Without apprising the lads
below of their imminent peril, the stout hunter kept

THE WOLF. in

a firm grip of the Wolf's tail, whicli lie wound round
bis left arm, and although the maddened brute
scrambled and twisted and strove with all her might
to force herself down to the rescue of her cubs, Poison
was just able with the exertion of all his strength to
keep her from going forward. In the midst of this
singular struggle, which passed in silence, his son
within the cave, finding the light excluded from above,
asked in Gaelic, ' Father, what is keeping the light
from us ? ' ' If the root of the tail breaks,' replied
he, ' you will soon know that. ' Before long, how-
ever, the man contrived to get hold of his hunting-
knife, and stabbed the Wolf in the most vital parts he
could reach. The enraged animal now attempted to
turn and face her foe, but the hole was too narrow
to allow of this ; and when Poison saw his danger he
squeezed her forward, keeping her jammed in whilst
he repeated his stabs as rapidly as he could, until
the animal being mortally wounded, was easily
dragged back and finished.

" These were the last Wolves killed in Sutherland,
and the den was between Craig- Rhadich and Craig-
Voakie, by the narrow Glen of Loth, a place replete
with objects connected with traditionary legends."*

This story was related by the Duke of Sutherland's
head forester in 1 848 to Mr. J. F. Campbell, who has
narrated it in his "Popular Tales of the West
Highlands," vol. i. p. 273.

" Every district," says Stuart in his " Lays of the
Deer Forest," "has its 'last ' Wolf," and there were

* Scrope's " Days of Deer Stalking," p. 374.

1 7 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

probably several which were later than that killed
by Sir Ewen Cameron.* The " last" of Strath Glass
was killed at Gusachan according to tradition " at no
very distant period." The "last" in Glen "Orchard on
the east side of the valley between Loch Leiter and
Sheugly, at a place called ever since Sloclid a
mhadaidh — i.e., the Wolfs den ; and the last of the
Findhorn and also (as there seems every reason
to believe) the last of the species in Scotland, at a
place between Fi-Giuthas and Pall-a-chrocain, and
according to popular chronology no longer ago than
the year 1 743. The district in which he was killed
was well calculated to have given harbour to the last
of a savage race. All the country round his haunt
was an extent of wild and desolate moorland hills,
beyond which, in the west, there was retreat to the
vast wilderness of the Monaidh-laith, an immense
tract of desert mountains utterly uninhabited, and
unfrequented except by summer herds and herdsmen,
but, when the cattle had retired, abundantly re-
plenished with deer and other game, to give ample
provision to the " wild dogs." The last of their race
was killed by MacQueen of Pall-a-chrocain, who died
in the year 1797, and was the most celebrated
"carnach" of the Findhorn for an unknown period.
Of gigantic stature, six feet seven inches in height,
he was equally remarkable for his strength, courage,
and celebrity as a deer-stalker, and had the best

* A portrait of this devoted partizan of the house of Stuart was
exhibited at the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen in
1859,

THE WOLF. 179

" long dogs " or deer-hounds in the country. One
winter's day, about the year before mentioned, he
received a message from the Laird of Macintosh
that a large " black beast," supposed to be a Wolf,
had appeared in the glens, and the day before killed
two children, who with their mother were crossing
the hills from Calder, in consequence of which a
" Tainchel " or " gathering " to drive the country was
called to meet at a tryst above Fi-Giuthas, where
MacQueen was invited to attend with his dogs. He
informed himself of the place where the children had
been killed, the last tracks of the Wolf, and the con-
jectures of his haunt, and promised his assistance.

In the morning the " Tainchol " had long assem-
bled, and Macintosh waited with impatience, but
MacQueen did not arrive. His dogs and himself were,
however, auxiliaries too important to be left behind,
and they continued to wait until the best of a
hunter's morning was gone, when at last he appeared,
and Macintosh received him with an irritable
expression of disappointment.

"CM ea chalhag?" ("What was the hurry?")
said he of Pall-a-chrocain.

Macintosh gave an indignant retort, and all pre-
sent made some impatient reply. .

MacQueen lifted his plaid and drew the black,
bloody head of the Wolf from under his arm !

" Sin e dhuibh /" (" There it is for you !") said he,
and tossed it on the grass in the midst of the surprised
circle.

Macintosh expressed great joy and admiration,

i So EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

and gave him the land called Sean-achan for meal to
his dogs."

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his " Account of the
Moray Floods of August, 1829," tells the story of
the Wolf killed in that district by MacQueen. of
Pall-a-chrocain, but lays the scene of the exploit in
the parish of Moy, in the county of Inverness, which,
although within the bounds of the ancient province
of Moray, is far beyond the present limits of the
forest of Tarnaway.

Sir Thomas gives the very words which MacQueen
is said to have used in describing to the chief of
Macintosh how he killed the wolf: "As I came
through the sloclik (i.e., ravine) by east the hill
there," said he, as if talking of some everyday occur-
rence, " I foregathered wi' the beast. My long dog-
there turned him. I buckled wi' him, and dirkit
him, and syne whuttled his craig (i.e., cut his
throat), and brought awa' his countenance for fear he
might come alive again, for they are very precarious
creatures/' In reward for his bravery, his chief
is said to have bestowed on him a gift of the lands of
Sean-achan "to yield meal for his good greyhounds in
all time coming." Sir Thomas Lauder has preserved
another tradition of the extirpation of the Wolf in
Morayshire, when two old Wolves and their cubs were
killed by one man in a ravine under the Knock of
Braemory, near the source of the Burn of Newton.

In the old " Statistical Account of Scotland,"
edited by Sir John Sinclair, and published in
twenty- one volumes between the years 1791 and

THE WOLF. 181

1799, a lew entries relating to the Wolf occur,
but they are neither numerous nor important.
Mr J. A. Harvie Brown, who has lately examined
the entire series of volumes for another purpose, has
obligingly communicated the following particulars :
" The woods in Blair Athole and Strowan in Perth-
shire once afforded shelter for Wolves (vol. ii. p. 486),
as did also the district around Cathcart in Renfrew-
shire (vol. v. p. 347). In Orkney it appears they
were unknown (vol. vii. p. 546). The wilds and
mountains of Glenorchay and Innishail in Argyll-
shire are noted as being formerly haunted by these
animals, whence they issued to attack not only the
iiock but their owners (vol. viii. p. 343). Towards
the west end of the parish of Birse in Aberdeen -
shire there is a place in the Grampians still known
( 1 793) by the name of the Wolf-holm (vol. ix. p. 1 08).
Ubster, a town in Caithness (from 'Wolfster,'
Danish or Icelandic), appears to have received its
name either from its being of old a place infested
with Wolves, or from a person of the name of Wolf
(vol. x. p. 32). In Banffshire the last Wolf is said
to have been killed in the parish of Kirkmichael
about 1644" (vol. xii. p. 447).

Dr. Robert Brown heard a tradition in Caithness-
shire that the wood on the hills of Yarrow, near
Wick, was cut down about the year 1500 by the
enraged dwellers in the district on account of its
harbouring Wolves, and that the last Wolf in that
neighbourhood was killed between Brabster and
Freswick in a hollow called Wolfsburn.

N 2

1 8 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

The place where the last Wolf that infested Mon-
teith was killed is a romantic cottage south-west of the
mill of Milling, in the parish and barony of Port,*

" The devastations of Oliver Cromwell in the vast
oak and fir woods of Lochaber are well known, and
hi 1 848 the old people still retained traditions of the
native clearances in the same century, when the
great tracts south, of Loch Treig and upon the Black-
water were set on fire to exterminate the Wolves, "t

In the Edderachillis district, forming the -western
portion of what is called Lord Reay's country, a
tradition existed to the effect that Wolves were at
one time so numerous that to avoid their ravages in
disinterring bodies from their graves, the inhabitants
were obliged to have recourse to the island of Handa
as a safer place of sepulture, j

The Earl of Ellesmere, referring to an extract from
the journal of his* son, the Hon. Capt. Francis
Egerton, R.N., written in India, and relating to an
apparently well authenticated story of some children
in Oude who were carried away and brought up by
Wolves, § says : " It is odd that the same tale should
extend to the Highlands. I got a story identical in
all its particulars of the Wolf time of Sutherland from
the old forester of the Reay, in which district Gaelic
tradition avers that Wolves so abounded that it was
usual to bury the dead in the Island of Handa to
avoid desecration of the graves."

* Nimmo's " Stirlingshire," pp. 745, 750.

f Stuart, " Lays of the Deer Forest," ii. p. 221.

J Wilson's " Voyage round Scotland," vol. i. p. 346.

§ " Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.," second series, viii. p. 153.

THE WOLF. 183

There is a tradition on Loch Awe side, Argyllshire,
that Green Island was used as a burial-place for the
same reason.*

In like manner an island in Loch Maree, Ross-shire,
was for the same reason selected for a similar purpose.t

On the western shores of Argyllshire the small isle
of St. Mungo, still used as a burial-place, has been
appropriated to this purpose from the days when the
Wolves were the terror of the land, the passage
between it and the mainland opposing a barrier which
they in vain attempted to cross.J

In Athole it was formerly the custom to bury the
dead in coffins made of five flagstones to preserve the
bodies from Wolves. §

When treating of the Wolf in England it was
observed" that many names of places compounded of
" Wolf" indicate in all probability localities where this
.animal was at one time common. The same may be
said of Scotland. Chalmers cites in Roxburghshire,
" Wolf-cleugh " in Roberton parish on Borthwick
Water ; " Wolf-cleugh" on Rule Water;" and " Wolf-
hope" on Catlee-burn, in Southdean parish ;|| to which
maybe added "Wolflee" or "Woole," on Wauchope-
burn; and " Wolfkeilder " on the Northumbrian
border. There are also " Wolf- gill land," in the

* This island is still used as a burying -ground. Mr. Harvic Browii
saw fresh graves there in May, 1879.

f Macculloch's •' Western Isles," quoted in Chambers' " Gazetteer
of Scotland," p. 755.

£ Constable's Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1817, p. 340.

§ " Statistical Account of Scotland" (1972), vol. ii. p. 465.

|| Chambers' " Caledonia," vol. ii. p. 132.

1 84 EXTINCT BRUTISH ANIMALS.

parish and shire of Dumfries, and "Wolfstan," in>
the parish of Pencaitland, East Lothian.*

Craigmaddie, " the rock of the Wolf," in the parish
of Baldernock, and Stronachon, "the ridge of the
dog," in the parish of Dry men, point by their name
to localities in Stirlingshire which were formerly the
haunts of the Wolf.

Mr. Hardy states (/. c.) that on the farm of Gods-
croft a cairn, now removed, was called " Wolf-camp.""
It may have been a Wolf s den, or perhaps an ancient
" meet " of the Wolf-hunters who were summoned by
the sheriff in the days of the early Kings James.

He adds that in 1/69 there was a farm called
"Burnbrae" and "Wolfland" in the parish of
Nenthorn belonging to Kerr of Fowberry. The
name seems to imply that it had been held in former
times by the tenure of hunting the Wolf; lands thus
granted being called " Wolf-hunt lands," as already
remarked under the head of the Wolf in England.

In 1756 BufFon was assured by Lord Morton, then
President of the Royal Society, " a Scotsman worthy
of the greatest credit and respect, and proprietor of
large territories in that country," that Wolves still
existed in Scotland at that date.

William Smellie, the translator and editor of
Buffon's " Natural History," thus comments on this
statement (vol. iv. p. 210, note, 3rd edit., 1791): "We
are fully disposed to give due weight to an authority
so respectable and so worthy of credit ; but we are
convinced that the Count has misapprehended his.

* Hardy, "Proc. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club," 1861, p. 289.

THE WOLF. 185

lordship, for it is universally known to the inhabitants
of Scotland that not a single Wolf has been seen in
any part of that country for more than a century past."
In asserting that this is universally known to the
inhabitants of Scotland, the translator and editor has
erred in the other extreme, for, as has been already
shown, Wolves were killed in Sutherland within fifty
years of the date of his remark and within thirteen
years of the date mentioned by Buffon.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE.— IRELAND.

From the scanty and more or less inaccessible
nature of the records relating to the natural history
of Ireland, compared with what exists in the case of
England and Scotland, the result of a search for
materials for a history of the Wolf in Ireland has
proved less satisfactory than could have been wished.
Nevertheless, some curious fragments of information
on the subject have been collected from various
sources, and are now brought together for the first
time.

There is abundant evidence to show that Wolves
formerly existed in great numbers in Ireland, and
that they maintained their ground for a longer
period there than in any other part of the United
Kingdom. In bygone ages they must have fared
sumptuously amongst the herds of reindeer and
Irish elk, which at one time were contemporary with
them ; and the discovery of numerous skeletons,
often entire herds of deer, imbedded in the mud of
ancient lakes, has led to the surmise that these

1 86 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

animals probably perished in this way in their
attempts to escape from packs of pursuing Wolves.

' Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the reigns of
Henry II., Richard I., and John, and who visited
Ireland in 1183 and again in 1185-6, when he
accompanied Prince John there, has left a curious
account of the wild animals then existing in Ireland,
amongst which is included the Wolf. He adds, " the
Wolves often have whelps in the month of December,
either in consequence of the great mildness of the
climate, or rather in token of the evils of treason
and rapine, which are rife here before their proper
season."^

In the "Polychronicon." of Ranulphus Higden, the
monk of Chester, who died about 1360, we have a
later account of the Irish fauna, and in this also the
Wolf figures. Thus he says : — " Terra hcec magis
vaccis quam bobus, pascuis quam frugibus, gramine
quam grano fecunda. Abundat tamen salmonibus,
murcenis, anguillis, et cceteris marinis piscibus ; aquilis
quoque, gruibus, pavonibus, coturnidbus, niso, falcone
et acdptre generoso. Lupos quoque habet, mures
nocentissimos ; sed et araneas, sanguisugas, et lacertas
habet innocuas. Mustelas quoque parvi corporis sed
valde animosas possidet:\ This passage is thus
rendered by his translator, John Trevisa (A.D. 1357-
1387), and adopted by Caxton in his " Crony cles of

* "Topographia Hiberniae," lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 726, ed. Dimock,
vol. v. p. 112. And not only "Wolves, but crows and owls are said to
have had young at Christmas. Op. cit., p. 112.

f "Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, Monachi Cestrensis," ed.
15abington (Master of the Rolls Series), vol. i. pp. 334, 335.

THE WOLF. 187

England," 1480 : — " In this londbeetli mo kyn than
oxen, more pasture than corne, more grass than seed.
There is grete plente of samon, of lam prey es, of eles,
and of other see fisch : of egles, of cranes, of pekokes,
of corlewes, of sparhaukes, of goshaukes, and of
gentil faucouns, and of Wolfes, and of wel shrewed
mys. There beeth attercoppes, blood-soukers, and
enettes that dooth noon harm," &c.* Some trans-
lators and later copyists have here and there
singularly perverted the original meaning of this
passage by blunders and mistranslations. Amongst
these may be mentioned the author or authors of
" The Book of Howth," a small folio in vellum of
the sixteenth century, written in different hands,
and preserved amongst the Carew MSS. (vol. dc.xxiii.),
in the Lambeth Library, t

* Some little interest attaches to this passage from the curious
assemblage of animals named in it. At the period referred to "cranes"
seem to have become common enough in Ireland: "in tanta vero
nnmcrositate se grues inyenint, ut uno in greye centum, et circiter liunc
numerum frequenter invcnias" (" Topog. Hibcrn.," ed. Dimock, v. 46).
By " pekokes" (pavonilus), it would seem the capercaillie is intended,
" pavones sllvestres hie abundant," says Giraldus (torn. cit. p. 47).
" Coturnicilus" should bo rendered " quails," not "curlews." ("Item
coturnicus hicplurimi," Girald. v. 47). '-Mures nocentissimoa" are not
necessarily shrew-mice, which are insectivorous. In all probability
that destructive little animal, the long-tailed field-mouse (Hits sylvaticus)
is referred to. By reading " arancos " (shrews) for " araneas" (spiders)
some confusion is accounted for. " Attercoppes" is the translation of
arancas. Jamieson, in his " Scottish Dictionary," gives " Atter-cap,"
"Attircop," spider, with two variants— Northumberland, " Attercop,"
and Cumberland, "Attercob," a cobweb. A. S. atter coppe, from
niter, venenum, and copp, calh; ; receiving its denomination partly from
its form, and partly from its character; q. a cup of venom. By
" bloodsuckers," of course, leeches are meant : for " enettes " lacertas
we may read " euettes" or " evettes" — i.e., efts, that do no harm.

f Cf. Brewer and Bnllon, Calendar Carew MSS., "The Book of
Howth," p. 31.

1 88 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Campion, whose "History of Ireland" was pub-
lished in 1570, refers to the chase of the Wolf there
with Wolf-hounds. " The Irish," he says, " are not
without Wolves, or greyhounds to hunt them ; bigger
of bone and limme than a colt."*

Sir James Ware, in his "Antiquities of Ireland"
(1658), notices, "those hounds which, from their
hunting of Wolves, are commonly called ' Wolf-dogs/

IRISH -WOLF-HOUND.

being creatures of great strength and size, and of a
fine shape."

Ray has described the Irish Wolf-hound as a tall,
rough greyhound ; so also has Pennant, who descants
at some length on his extraordinary size and power.

The Wolf-hound here figured is a dog belonging to

* See also Holinshed,"Descrip.Irel." 1586; and Camclen, "Britannia,"
vol. ii. p. 1312 (ed. Gibson).

THE WOLF. 189

Capt. G. H. Graham, of Rednock, Dursley, Glouces-
tershire, and bred from the only authentic strain
of Irish Wolf-hound now known. His dimensions
are as follows : — Height, 29^ in. ; girth, 33 J in. ;
length of head, 1 2 in. ; girth of do. in front of earsr
:8f in. ; forearm, S^ in. Weight, 102 Ibs.

In a Privy Seal from Henry VIII. to the Lord-
Deputy and Council of Ireland,* his Majesty takes
notice of the suit of the Duke of Albuquerque, of
Spain (of the Privy Council to Henry VIII.), on
behalf of the Marquis Desarrya and his son, " that
it might please his Majesty to grant to the said
Marquis and his son, and the longer liver of them,
yearly, out of Ireland, two goshawks, and four Wolf-
hounds," and commands the Deputy for the time
being to order the delivery of ths hawks and hounds,
and to charge the cost to the Treasury.

In November, 1562, as we learn from the State
Papers relating to Ireland,t the Irish chieftain, Shane
O'Neill, forwarded to Queen Elizabeth, through
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a present of two
horses, two hawks, and two Irish Wolf-dogs. In
1585, Sir John Perrott, who was Lord-Deputy of
Ireland from January, 1584, to July, 1588,! sent to
Sir Francis Walsingham, then Secretary of State in.
London, " a brace of good Wolf-dogs, one black, the
other white."

Again, in 1 608, we find that Irish Wolf-hound*
were sent from Ireland by Captain Esmond, of

* Hot. Cane. Dec, 9, 36 H. 8, dorso.
f Eliz., vol. vii. No. 40, in Pub. Rec. Off. J Eliz., vol. cxx. No. 12.

1 90 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

Duncaimon, to Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrews-
bury. *

These dogs were considered very valuable, and
were highly thought of by those who received them
as presents ; but some years later, when, owing to
the great increase in the number of Wolves in some
parts of Ireland, their services were more than ever
required to keep down these ferocious animals, a
law, presently to be noticed, was passed to prohibit
their exportation.

About this time George Turbervile, a gentleman of
Dorsetshire, was writing his " Booke of Hunting,"!
in which, referring to this animal, he says : — " The
Wolf is a beaste sufficiently known in France and
other countries where he is bred ; but here in
England they be not to be found in any place. In
Ireland, as I have heard, there are great store of
them ; and because many noblemen and gentlemen
have a desire to bring that countrie to be inhabited
and civilly governed (and would God there were
more of the same mind), therefore I have thought good
to set down the nature and manner of hunting the
Wolf according to mine author. "J He then proceeds
to describe the mode then in vogue of hunting this
animal. An open spot was generally chosen, at
some distance from the great coverts where the
Wolves were known to lie, and here, in concealment,
a brace, sometimes two brace, of Wolf-hounds were

* " Archaeol. .ZEliana," vol. ii. p. 226.

t "Imprinted at London for Christopher Barker at the sigiie of the
Ci rashopper in Paules Churchyarde. Anno 1575."
J Jacques de Fouilloux, "Traite do Yenerie."

THE WOLF. igi

placed. A horse was killed, and the fore-quarters-
were trailed through the paths and ways in the
wood during the previous day, and back to where the
carcase lay, and there they were left. When night
approached, out came the Wolves, and having struck
the scent, they followed it until they found the dead
horse, when of course they began to feed on the
flesh, and early in the morning, just before daybreak,
the hunters placed their dogs so as to prevent the
Wolves from returning to cover. When a Wolf
came to the spot, the men in charge of the Wolf-
hounds suffered him to pass by the first, but the
last were let slip full in his face, and at the same
instant the others were let slip also, so that, the
first staying him ever so little, he was sure to be
attacked on all sides at once, and therefore, the
more easily taken.*

In Robert Legge's " Book of Information/' com-
piled in 1 5 84 by order of Sir John Perrott, the above-
named Lord-Deputy of Ireland, " for the information
of the civil government of that realm," it is recom-
mended, inter alia, that for the " destruction of raven-
ing and devouring Wolves, some order might be had, as
when any lease is granted, to put in some clause that
the tenant endeavour himself to spoil and kill Wolves
with traps, snares, or such devices as he may devise, "t

* The most complete account which we have met with of Wolf-
hunting in modern times is that given by Col. Thornton in his
"Sporting Tour through various parts of France in 1802," vol. i.
pp. xxi-xxxix. A more recent treatise, however, has been published
under the title of " Wolf-hunting in Brittany."

f Carew MSS., vol. dcvii. p. 115. Brewer and Bullen, Calendar of
Carew MSS., Eliz., p. 401.

1 9 2 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS,

About this time, it is said, Wolves committed
great devastation amongst the flocks in Munster.
After the destruction of Kilmallock by James
Fitzmaurice, in 1591, that place is stated to have
become the haunt of Wolves.

For some account of their ravages during Des-
mond's rebellion, the reader may be referred to
O'Sullivan's " Compendium Historise Catholic®
Hiberniee," 1621 (lib. viii. cap. 6).

At a later period, according to Fynes Moryson,
who was Secretary to Lord-Deputy Mountjoy, and
who wrote a "History of Ireland from 1599 to
1603," the cattle had to be driven in at night, "for
fear of thieves (the Irish using almost no other kind
of theft), or else for fear of Wolves, the destruc-
tion whereof being neglected by the inhabitants,
oppressed with greater mischiefs, they are so much
grown in numbers as sometimes on winter nights
they will come and prey in villages and the suburbs
of cities."*

In May, 1594, Lord William Russell was ap-
pointed Lord-Deputy of Ireland by Queen Elizabeth.
From entries in his "Journal," extending from "June
24, 1 594, to May 27, 1 597,"! it appears that both he
and Lady Russell, who accompanied him to Ireland,
frequently participated in the pleasures of the chase,
and amused themselves at different times with hawk-
ing, fishing, and hunting. Under date May 26,
1596, it is recorded: "My Lord and Lady rode

* Moryson, "Hist. Ireland," Dublin ed., 1735, v°l- "• P- 367.

f Preserved amongst the Carew MSS. at Lambeth Palace, vol. dcxii.

THE WOLF. 193

abroad a hunting the Wolf." As the Vice-regal Court
was then located at Kilmainham, almost within
the city of Dublin, it would appear that the Wolf
in question was to be found at no great distance
beyond the city walls,

Sir Arthur Chichester, writing to Sir John Davys,
March 31, 1 609, in reference to the pending planta-
tion of Ulster, incidentally remarks, that " if the
Irish do not possess and inhabit a great part of the
lands in some of those escheated countries, none but
Wolves and wild beasts would possess them for many
years to come ; for where civil men may have lands
for reasonable rents in so many thousand places in
that province, and in this whole kingdom, they will
not plant themselves in mountains, rocks and desert
places, though they might have the land for nothing. "*

In the reign of James I. it would seem that
active measures were advised for the destruction of
Wolves in Ireland, and the following " Heads of a
Bill in the Irish Parliament, 1611," will be found
preserved amongst the Carew MSS., formerly in the
Record Office, but now at Lambeth Palace :t " An
Act for killing Wolves and other vermin, touching
the days of hunting, the people that are to attend,
who to be their director, an inhibition not to use any
arms. The Lord Deputy or Principal Governor to
prohibit such hunting if he suspect that such assem-
blies by colour of hunting may prove inconvenient."

* State Papers, Ireland, in Record Office, vol. ccxxvi, 58.
t Carew, MSS., vol. dcxxix. p. 35. See also Hamilton's " Calendar of
State Papers referring to Ireland," Jac. I., sub anno, p. 192.

ip4 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

This proposed Act, however, seems never to have
become law, for no mention of it is made in the eight
volumes of Irish Statutes published by authority in
Dublin in 1765. It is not surprising therefore that
the ravages of the Wolves in Ireland continued. In
1619 their numbers in Ulster compelled people "to
house their cattle in the bawnes of their castles,
where all the winter nights they stood up to their
bellies in dirt. Another reason is to prevent thieves
and false-hearted brethren who have spies abroad,
and will come thirty miles out of one province into
another to practise a cunning robbery."''5

Howell, in one of his " Familiar Letters," written
to Sir James Crofts, September 6th, 1624, says: — A
pleasant tale I heard Sir Thomas Fairfax relate of
a souldier in Ireland, who having got his passport to
go for England, as he past through a wood with
his knapsack upon his back, being weary, he sate
down under a tree wher he open'd his knapsack and
fell to some victuals he had ; but upon a sudden he
was surpriz'd with two or three Woolfs, who, coming
towards him. he threw them scraps of bread and
cheese till all was done ; then the Woolfs making a
nearer approach unto him, he knew not what shift to
make, but by taking a pair of bagpipes which he
had, and as soon as he began to play upon them, the
Woolfs ran all away as if they bad been scar'd out of
their wits. Whereupon the souldier said, " A pox
take you all, if I had known you had lov'd musick
so well, you should have had it before dinner !"

* Gainsford's " Glory of England," p. 148.

THE WOLF. 195

In 1 64 1 and 1652 Wolves were particularly trouble-
some in Ireland, and in the latter year the following
Order in Council was issued by Cromwell, prohibiting
the exportation of Wolf-dogs :—

"Declaration against transporting of Wolfe Dogges.

"Forasmuch as we are credibly informed that
Wolves doe much increase and destroy many cattle
in several partes of this Dominion, and that some of
the enemie's party, who have laid down armes, and
have liberty to go beyond sea and others, do attempt
to carry away such great dogges as are commonly
called Wolfe dogges, whereby the breed of them which
are useful for destroying of Wolves would (if not
prevented) speedily decay. These are therefore to
prohibit all persons whatsoever from exporting any
of the said dogges out of this Dominion ; and
searchers and other officers of the Customs, in the
several partes and creekes of this Dominion, are
hereby strictly required to seize and make stopp of
all such dogges, and deliver them either to the com-
mon huntsman, appointed for the precinct where they
are seized upon, or to the governor of the said precinct.

"Dated at KILKENNY, April 27, 1652."

The following year another Order in Council was
made which ran as follows : —

"Declaration touching Wolves.

"For the better destroying of Wolves, which of
late years have much increased in most parts of this

196 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

nation, it is ordered that the Commanders in Chiefe
and Commissioners of the Revenue in the several
precincts doe consider of, use, and execute all good
waves and meanes how the Wolves in the counties
and places within the respective precincts may be
taken and destroyed ; and to employ such person or
persons, and to appoint such daies and tymes for
hunting the Wolfe, as they shall adjudge necessary.
And it is further ordered that all such person or
persons as shall take, kill, or destroy any Wolfes and
shall bring forth the head of the Wolfe before the
said commanders of the revenue, shall receive the
sums foUowing, viz., for every bitch Wolfe, six
pounds;* for every dog Wolfe, five pounds ; for
every cubb which preyeth for himself, forty shillings ;
for every suckling cubb, ten shillings. And no
Wolfe after the last September until the loth
January be accounted a young Wolfe, and the Com-
missioners of the Revenue shall cause the same to be
equallie assessed within their precincts.

"DUBLIN, June 29, i653."t

The assessments here ordered fell heavily in some
districts. Thus in December, 1665, the inhabitants
of Mayo county petitioned the Council of State that
the Commissioners of Assessment might be at liberty

* The price paid in Sutherlandshire, in 1621, was 61. 13*. 4^.
See p. 169.

f These documents were extracted from the original Privv Council
Book of Cromwell's government in Ireland, preserved in Dublin Castle
and are quoted by Hardiman in his edition of O'Flaherty's " West or
H'lar Connaught," p. 180.

THE WOLF. 197

to compound for Wolf-heads ; which was ordered
accordingly.

In 1662, as appears by the Journal of the House
of Commons, Sir John Ponsonby reported from the
Committee of Grievances that a Bill should be brought
in "to encourage the killing of Wolves and foxes in
Ireland. "

In the "Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo III. in
England," 1669 (p. 103), the author speaks of Wolves
as common in Ireland, "for the hunting of which
the dogs called 'mastiffs' are in great request."

O'Flaherty, in his "West or H'lar Cormaught"
(1684), enumerates the wild animals which were to
be found in that district in his day, and names
" Wolves, deere, foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, hares,
rabbets, squirrells, martens, weesles, and the amphi-
bious otter, of which kind the white-faced otter is
very rare." Hardiman, in a note to his edition of
this work (1846), says: "When our author wrote
(1684), and for some years afterwards, wolves were
to be found in lar Connaught, but not in such
numbers as in the early part of that century. The
last Wolf which I have been able to trace here was
killed in the mountains of Joyce country, in the
year 1700. After the wars of 1641 the ravages of
the Wolves were so great throughout Ireland as to
excite the attention of the State. ' Wolf-hunters '
were appointed in various districts, and amongst
others in lar Connaught, who helped to rid the
country of these ferocious animals. "*

* Hardiman, op. cit., p. 10, note.

O 2

1 98 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

In an account of the British Islands, published at
Nuremberg in 1 690, the Avilds of Kerry are referred
to as harbouring Wolves and foxes ;* and in the
reign of William and Mary, Ireland was sometimes
called by the nickname of "Wolf-land." Thus in
a poem on the Battle of La Hogue, 1692, called
" Advice to a Painter," the terror of the Irish army
is described : —

A chilling damp,
And Wolf-land howl runs through the rising camp.

"Three places in Ireland are commemorated, each as
having had the last Irish wolf killed there — namely,
one in the south, another near Glenarm, and the
third, Wolf-hill, three miles from Belfast. "t The
one in the south is probably that referred to in
Edwards's "Cork Remembrancer" (p. 131), wherein
the following entry occurs: "This year (1710) the
last presentment [to the Grand Jury] for killing
wolves was made in the county of Cork."J In the
old " Statistical Account of Scotland," however,
edited by Sir John Sinclair, it is stated (voL, xii.
p. 447) that the last was killed in Ireland in 1 709.

The great woods of Shillela, on the confines ot
Carlow and Wicklow, now the property of Earl
Fitzwilliam, are said to have held Wolves until
about the year 1700, when the last of them was
destroyed in the neighbourhood of Glendaloch.§

* This work we have not seen. It is quoted by Macaulay, in his
" History of England," vol. iii. p. 136.

f Thompson, " Nat. Hist., Ireland," vol. iv. p. 34.

J See also Scouler, " Journ. Geol. Soc.," Dublin, vol. i. p. 226.

§ Mackenzie's "Natural History," p. 20. This volume, published in
London in modern times, is undated,

THE WOLF. 199

In a poem, in six cantos, published as late as 1719,
and entitled, " MacDermot, or the Irish Fortune-
Hunter," " Wolf-hunting" and " Wolf-spearing" are
represented as common sports in Munster. Here is
an extract : —

" It happen'd on a day with horn and hounds,
A baron gallop'd through MacDermot's grounds,
Well hors'd, pursuing o'er the dusty plain
A Wolf that sought the neighbouring woods to gain :
Mac hears th' alarm, and, with his oaken spear,
Joins in the chase, and runs before the peer,
Outstrips the huntsman, dogs, and panting steeds,
And, struck by him, the falling savage bleeds."

The crest of the O'Quins of Munster is " a Wolf's
head, erased, argent," possibly perpetuating the
prowess of some former noted Wolf-hunter in that
ancient family.

The author of "The Present State of Great
Britain and Ireland," printed in London in 1 738,
wrote at that date, " Wolves still abound too much
in Ireland ; they pray for the Wolves, least they
should devour them."

In Smith's " Ancient and Modern State of the
County of Kerry," 1756 (of which book Macaulay
said, " I do not know that I have ever met with a
better book of the kind and of the size," "Hist.
Eng." in. 1 36), the author, speaking of certain ancient
enclosures, observes (p. 173) that many of them were
made to secure cattle from Wolves, which animals
were not entirely extirpated until about the year
1710, as I find by presentments for raising money
for destroying them in some old grand -jury books."

Traces of old circular entrenchments, into which

200 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

cattle and sheep were driven for protection from
Wolves, are still to be seen in many parts of Ireland,
especially in the south. One of these, in the county
Tyrone, will be noticed presently.

In Harris's edition of Sir James Ware's " Works n
(Dublin, 1764), the editor, commenting upon the
passage, " I shall but just hint at the eagerness of
the Irish in the chase, as in hunting Wolves and
stags," remarks in a footnote (p. 165), "So said in
the year 1658. But there are no Wolves in Ireland
now." This statement in turn may be controverted
upon very respectable authority, but the conflict of
evidence renders it very difficult to fix with certainty
the precise date at which the animal became extinct.

The following account is given of the destruction,
by a noted Wolf-hunter, of the last Wolves in the
county Tyrone : —

" In the mountainous parts of the county Tyrone,
the inhabitants suffered much from Wolves, and gave
as much for the head of one of these animals as they
would now give (1829) for the capture of a notorious
robber on the highway. There lived in those days.
an adventurer who, alone and unassisted, made it
his occupation to destroy those ravagers. The time
for attacking them was at night. There was a
species of dog kept for the purpose of hunting
them, resembling a rough, stout, half-bred grey-
hound, but much stronger.

"In the county Tyrone there was then a large-
space of ground enclosed by a high stone wall, having
a gap at the two opposite extremities, and in this.

THE WOLF. 201

were secured the flocks of the surrounding farmers.
Still, secure though this fold was deemed, it was
entered by the Wolves, and its inmates slaughtered.

" The neighbouring proprietors having heard of the
noted Wolf-hunter above mentioned, by name Eory
Carragh, sent for him and offered the usual reward,
with some addition, if he would undertake to destroy
the two remaining Wolves that had committed such
devastation. Carragh, undertaking the task, took
with him two Wolf dogs and a little boy, the only
person he could prevail on to accompany him, and,
at the approach of night, repaired to the fold in
question.

" ' Now,' said Carragh to the boy, ' as the Wolves
usually attack the opposite extremities of the sheep-
fold at the same time, I must leave you and one of
the dogs to guard this one, while I go to the other.
He steals with all the caution of a cat ; nor will you
hear him, but the dog will, and will positively give
him the first fall. If you are not active when he is
down, to rivet his neck to the ground with this spear,
he will rise up and kill both you and the dog.'

"Til do what I can,' said the boy, as he took the
spear from the Wolf- hunter's hand.

" The boy immediately threw open the gate of the
fold, and took his seat in the inner part, close to the
entrance, his faithful companion crouching at his side
and seeming perfectly aware of the dangerous business
he was engaged in. The night was very dark and cold,
and the poor little boy being benumbed with the
chilly air, was beginning to fall into a kind of sleep,

202 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

when at that instant the dog, with a roar, leaped
across him and laid his mortal enemy upon the earth.
The boy was roused into double activity by the voice
of his companion, and drove the spear through the
Wolf's neck, as he had been directed ; at which time
Carragh made his appearance with the head of the
other."*

In an interesting article on the Irish Wolf-dog,
published in The Irish Penny Journal for 1841
(p. 354), the writer says :t — " I am at present
acquainted with an old gentleman between eighty
and ninety years of age, whose mother remembered
Wolves to have been killed in the county of Wexford
about the years 1730-40, and it is asserted by
many persons of weight and veracity that a Wolf
was killed in the Wicklow mountains so recently
as 1770.

A few years since, Sir J. Emerson Tennent wrote
on this subject as follows : —

" Waringstown, in the county of Down, on the con-
fines of the county of Armagh, takes its name from
the family of Waring, which, in the reign of Queen
Mary, fled to Ireland from Lancashire to avoid the
persecution of the Lollards. At the close of the
seventeenth century the Waring of that day was a
member of the Irish Parliament ; and his eldest son,
Samuel Waring, was born about the year 1699, and

* " The Biography of a Tyrone Family " (Belfast, 1829), p. 74.

f This article, published under the initials of H. D. R., has since
been admitted to have been written by H. D. Richardson, author of
" The Dog : its Origin, Natural History, and Varieties," in which
work it has been embodied with additions, 1848.

THE WOLF. 203

<lied at a very advanced age in 1793. Ho was suc-
ceeded by his nephew, the Very Reverend Holt
Waring, Dean of Dromore, who was born in 1766,
and whom I had the honour to know. With him I
happened to be travelling through the Mourne moun-
tains, in the county of Down, on our way to the Earl
of Roden's, about the year 1 834 or 1 83 5, when the con-
versation turning upon the social condition of Ireland
in the previous century, he told me that a foal belonging
to his uncle had been killed by a Wolf in the stable
at Waringstown, and that he, when a boy, had heard
the occurrence repeatedly adverted to in the family
circle. The dean was a man of singularly acute mind
and accurate memory, and unless this statement of his
be altogether a delusion, this would seem to be the
last recorded appearance of a Wolf in Ireland. "

The last piece of evidence collected has reference
to a communication which appeared in The
Zoologist for 1862 (p. 7996), under the heading,
" Wolf Days of Ireland." On applying to the writer,
Mr. Jonathan Grubb, of Sudbury, for further parti-
culars, he obligingly replied in a letter, dated June 6,
1877, as follows : —

"I am now in my seventieth year. My father,
who was born in 1767, used to tell the Wolf stones
to us when we were children. His mother — my
grandmother — related them to him. She was born in
1731. Her maiden name was Malone ; and her
uncles, from whom she received her information, were
the actors in the scenes described at Ballyroggin,
county Kildare. She remembered one of thorn,

204 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

James Malone, telling her how his brother came
home one night on horseback pursued by a pack of
Wolves, who overtook him, and continued leaping on
to the hind quarters of his horse till he reached his
own door, crying out, ' Oh ! James, James ! my horse
is ate with the Wolves.' "

The precise date of this occurrence cannot now be
fixed ; but it seems plain that Wolves existed in
Kildare during the first quarter of the eighteenth
century, and perhaps as late as 1721.

To sum up. So far as can be now ascertained, it
appears that the Wolf became extinct in England
during the reign of Henry VII. ; that it survived in
Scotland until 1 743 ; and that the last of these animals
was killed in Ireland, according to Richardson, in
1770, or, according to Sir James Emerson Tennent,
subsequently to 1766.

In the foregoing observations, no reference has
been made to " Were-wolves," nor has any matter
been introduced touching the fabulous or superstitious
aspect of the Wolfs history in the British Islands.
All such allusions have been purposely avoided, in
order to confine the subject within reasonable limits.

Before concluding, however, we may perhaps be
excused for citing so respectable an authority as Sir
Thomas Browne, who, in his " Enquiries into Vulgar
and Common Errors," has alluded to the popular
notion that Wolves cannot live in England.

In vol. iii. p. 344, of his " Works " (Wilkin's
edition), he says : — " Thus because there are no
Wolves in England, nor have been observed for divers

THE WOLF. 205

generations (1646), common people have proceeded
into opinions, and some wise men into affirmations,
that they will not live therein, although brought
from other countries."

He also notices the popular belief that " a Wolf
first seeing a man begets a dumbness in him," a
notion as old as the time of Pliny, who wrote : " In
Italia, ut creditur, luporum visus est noxius, vocemque
homini, quern prius contemplatur adirnere" In France,
when anyone becomes hoarse, the say " II a vu le
loup."* "

" The ground or occasional original thereof," says
Sir Thomas Browne,t " was probably the amazement
and sudden silence the unexpected appearance of
Wolves doth often put upon travellers, not by a sup-
posed vapour or venomous emanation, but a vehement
fear, which naturally produceth obmutescence, and
sometimes irrecoverable silence."

A critic, adverting to this passage, has somewhat
wittily remarked : " Dr. Browne did unadvisedly
reckon this among his vulgar errors, for I believe he
would find this no error if he were suddenly sur-
prised by a wolf, having no means to escape or save
himself!"

* Howell's " Familiar Letters," vol. ii. p. 52.
f Op. cit, vol. ii. p. 422.

CONCLUSION.

Ix considering the causes, besides those already
referred to, which have led to the extinction of
the wild animals now under consideration, it should
be borne in mind that for some centuries after
the Norman Conquest they were not hunted down
and destroyed by everybody and anybody, as
they would be if they existed at the present
day, but were strictly preserved under very severe
penalties by the kings and powerful noblemen of
the day for their own particular sport and recreation.
William the Conqueror punished with the loss of
eyes those convicted of killing a wild boar, stag, or
roebuck ; and wolves and foxes, although reckoned
neither as beasts of the forest nor of venery, could
not be killed within the limits of the forest without
a, breach of the royal chase, for which offenders had
to yield a recompense.

The inveterate love of the chase possessed by
William Rufus, which prompted him to enforce during
his tragical reign the most stringent and cruel forest
laws, is too well-known to readers of history to require
comment.

CONCLUSION.

207

In his passion for hunting wild animals Henry I.
excelled even his brother William, and not content
with encountering and slaying those which like the
wolf and the wild boar, were at that time indi-
genous to this country, he " cherished of set purpose
sundrie kinds of wild beasts, as bears, Hbards, ounces,
lions, at Woodstocke, and one or two other places in
England, which he walled about with hard stone
(A.D. 1120), and where he would often fight with some
one of them hand to hand."

Henry II. and John were both great preservers of
wild animals, and monopolized large tracts of country
wherein to indulge their passion for hunting. Ferocious
animals were in consequence long suffered to remain
at large against the will of the people, and hence
survived to a much later period in this country
than would have been the case had the subjects of
these monarchs dared sooner to assert their inde-
pendence. But at length came the repeal of the
forest laws. The operation of the Charter of the
Forests, which was signed by John at the same time
with Magna Charta, restrained the worst abuses of
the feudal tenure; all lands which had been con-
verted into woods or parks since the commencement
of this reign were disafforested, and the tenants
bordering on the royal forests secured against spolia-
tion ; in a word, the laws made for the protection of
the game and wild animals were either partially
repealed or considerably mitigated.

A confirmation of this charter was obtained,
though with much difficulty, from Henry III. It

208 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS.

directed that all woods that had been taken in, or,
as it was termed, afforested, to the prejudice of the
owners, should be disafforested, and no more addi-
tions were to be made. Still further concessions on
this score were made by Edward I.

From this time it may be said that the presence
of ferocious animals in this country was no longer
tolerated. They were slain wherever and whenever
they could be found, and only managed to survive
in reduced numbers, for some few centuries longer,
in consequence of the utter impossibility of dislodging
them from the almost impenetrable forests and moun-
tain fastnesses to which they were driven. Later on,
when large tracts of forests were purposely cut down
or burned for the purpose of expelling these animals,
and statutes were put in force which rewarded
the slayers of them, their extermination was finally
accomplished.

Another cause which has doubtless contributed in
no slight degree to the extinction of the above-men-
tioned animals, is the insular character of the country
which they inhabited.

As civilization advanced, as forests were cut down,
mosses drained and moorlands cultivated, they were
driven further and further away, until finally their
retreat was cut off by the sea. Unable to retire beyond
so irresistible a barrier, they gradually succumbed to
the attacks of their pursuers, or to the altered condi-
tions of life, which deprived them per force of the
means of existence. We have seen how fully this
is exemplified in the case of the reindeer, whose last

CONCLUSION. 209

home in Britain was among the remote hills of Caith-
ness.

To the naturalist it is a somewhat sad reflection,
that animals of the forest and the chase, now only
known by name as the inhabitants of other countries,
were once as familiar to our ancestors as they are at
present to the people of the remote kingdoms which
they frequent. Man has been warring against these
forest denizens, and as tract after tract which they
once claimed as their own has been brought under
the ploughshare, they have been driven farther and
farther back, until the last of them has been blotted
out from our fauna.

Lake and moor have become fields of yellow grain ;
forest has been changed into morass, morass into
moor, and moor again into forest, until finding
nowhere to rest in peace, the bear, the beaver, the
reindeer, the wild boar, and the wolf, have become
in Britain amongst the things that were.

PABT II.
BRITISH WILD WHITE CATTLE.

2I3

WILD WHITE CATTLE.

THE few scattered herds of so-called Wild White
Cattle which still exist in parks in England and
Scotland may be said to form a connecting link, as it
were, between the wild animals which have become
extinct in this country within historic times, and
those which may still be classed amongst our fercc
naturae.

The race is undoubtedly of great antiquity, but
whether it is descended, as some affirm, from tl.c

p 2

2i4 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

aboriginal wild breed of the British forests — the
Urus of Caesar (Bos primig eniits) — or whether, as
others assert, it has at some period long remote
been imported from abroad and since become feral,
are questions upon which, at present, considerable
difference of opinion prevails. The weight of scien-
tific opinion, however, seems to favour the view that
these wild white cattle were descended from the
Urus, either by direct descent through wild animals
from the wild bull, or less directly through domesti-
cated cattle deriving their blood principally from
him. That the Urus existed in Britain in prehistoric
times, and was contemporaneous with man of the
Palaeolithic or older Stone Age, must be admitted.
In the fluviatile deposits of the Thames, and in some
other places, the remains of the two have been found
together,* and instances have been recorded in
which the remains of the Urus have been found
contemporaneous with man of the Neolithic or
later Stone Age. In the Zoological Museum at
Cambridge, where there is a remarkably fine skeleton
of this animal from Burwell Fen, may be seen the
greater portion of a skull from the same locality, in
which a neolithic celt was found, and still remains
imbedded. t Another skull of this animal was found
in a moss in Scotland, in conjunction with bronze

* The Eev. Samuel Banks, Sector of Cottenham, possesses a fine
skull of the Urus, found in Cottenham Fen, the fractured bone of which
clearly testifies that it was destroyed by a human weapon.

t See Carter, Geological Magazine, November, 1874. Both the
specimens here referred to are figured in Miller and Skertchley's " Fen-
land, Past and Present," p. 321.

WILD WHITE CATTLE, 215

celts, indicating a still later period — the Bronze
Age.

Mr. Woods has published a good description, with
figures of the cranial part of the skull and horn-cores
of Bos primigenius which were discovered in 1838 in
the bed of the Avon, at Melksham, and has referred
to similar remains found in the neighbourhoods of
Bath, Tiverton and Newton St. Loe.*

In the Magazine of Natural History (1838, p. 163),
Mr. Brown of Stanway has recorded the discovery
in a mass of drift sand overlying the London clay
at Clacton, Essex, of a portion of the cranium with
horn-cores of Bos primigenius, a very perfect skull
of which has been admirably figured by Professor
Owen,t from a specimen found at Athole, Perthshire,
and preserved in the British Museum.

Fleming, in his " History of British Animals"
(1828), has referred to a skull of this animal which is
now preserved in the Museum of the New College,
Edinburgh, and of which he has briefly given
dimensions. It was found in a marl-pit at New-
burgh, Fifeshire. Through the kindness of Dr. J. A.
Smith, and by permission of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, we are here enabled to figure it from an
illustration, slightly reduced, in Dr. Smith's excellent
" Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland," printed
in the " Proceedings" of the Society referred to. To
the proprietors of The Field we are also indebted
for permission to make use of an engraving of an

* Woods' " Description of Fossil Skull of an Ox," 4to, 1839.
f " British Fossil Mammals," p. 498.

216

WILD WHITE CATTLE.

English skull of this animal, which, in The Field
of April 1 8, 1868, illustrated some remarks on its
discovery from the pen of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier.
This specimen was found in the bed of the Kibble,
below Preston, Lancashire, in the spring of 1867, and
passed into the possession of Mr. James Dobson of
the Preston Chronicle, who kindly forwarded it for
examination.

SKULL OF BOS PRIMIGEX1US, ril'E.SHIUE.

Iii these and other instances which have been-
recorded, the animals whose remains were found were,
in all probability, wild, and not domesticated. In-
deed, no discoveries have yet been made which lead
to the supposition that the Urus was domesticated in
Britain in pre-historic times ; while Bos longifrons,
the " Celtic short-horn," as it has been termed, was

WILD WHITE CATTLE, 217

everywhere subjugated and used by man. The
latter was the only ox in Britain in the time of the
Romans, and afforded sustenance to their legions.
From it the small dark breeds of Wales and Scotland
are descended ; and it survived until recently in
Cornwall, Cumberland and Westmoreland. The
remains of Bos longifrons are plentiful in the English
fens, and it seems to have afforded a staple article of

SKULL OF BOS PUIMIGEMUS, LANCASHIRE.

food in the Neolithic Age. Mr. Sydney Skertchley
found immense numbers of the bones of this animal
in what are probably the remains of a Stone-age lake-
dwelling at Crowland.* At the great flint-implement
manufactory at Grimes Graves, near Brandon, the
remains of this animal are very plentiful, and belong
chiefly to young calves. It would appear from this

* Miller and Skertchley, " Fcnland, Past and Present," p. 343
(1878).

2i8 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

that a principal element in the food of these people
was milk, and therefore they could not afford to keep
the calves, which must have consumed a large por-
tion of what would otherwise have been available for
the use of the household.*

But to return to Bos primigenius. While such
authorities as Professors Riitimeyer and Nilsson,
Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Boyd Dawkins,t and
Mr. Darwin are inclined to believe that our wild white
cattle are descended from the Urus in one or other of
the two ways above indicated, Professor Owen and Dr.
J. A. Smith (whose excellent " Notes on the Ancient
Cattle of Scotland " are apparently less known than
they deserve to be}) hold a different view, and con-
sider that Bos primigenius became extinct throughout
the whole island in pre-historic times. There seems to
be much probability, though it can scarcely be con-
sidered proved, that such was the case in the southern
parts of Britain; but, as Mr. Storer in his lately
published work has pointed out,§ it has yet to be shown
that in the northern parts the same rule prevailed,
the Caledonian deposits especially (partly perhaps from
their remote positions) having in but few instances
been examined with that consummate skill, care, and
attention which southern discoveries have received.

* Greenwell, 'Grimes Graves,' " Journ. Eth. Soc.,"vol. ii. p.43i (1871).

f Professor Boyd Dawkins once thought the Urus might have sur-
vived in Britain within historic times in some of the wilder parts of
the country, ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.," 1866, p. 397), but subsequently
altered his opinion (" Trans. Internat. Congress, Praehist. Archeeol.,"
1 868, pp. 269-289.)

J See "Pro. Soc. Antiq. Scotl.," vol. ix. p. 587.

§ " The Wild White Cattle of Great Britain."

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 219

But our concern is not so much with the origin of the
race of wild white cattle, of which a few representative
animals still survive, as with the history of the herds
which are known to have been preserved in different
parts of the country, and of which some half-dozen
still exist at the present day. Of these we propose
to give some account ; but, before doing so, we may
glance briefly at the historical notices of the existence
of wild cattle in England and Scotland which ha.ve
been preserved to us in the works of various his-
torians, antiquaries, and naturalists. On looking
over the plates of British coins figured by Camden
in his " Britannia" (vol. i. p. Ixv.) we were struck by
a coin of Cunobelin (fig. 1 3) bearing on the obverse
a head of this king, and on the reverse a really
characteristic figure, as we take it, of a wild bull — an
animal which was no doubt frequently hunted by the
early rulers of Britain.

COIN Oi' CUNOBELIN.

Some indication of the existence of wild cattle
in Saxon times is furnished in the celebrated
traditionary legend of the slaughter of the wild
cow by Guy Earl of Warwick, which is said to
have taken place in the days of King Athelstan
(A.D. 925-941). The ballad, "Sir Guy of War-
wick," is given in Ritson's " Ancient Songs and

220 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

Ballads," and in Percy's "Keliques of Ancient
English Poetry,'' where we are informed that it was
entered on the Stationers' books in 1591, although
undoubtedly of much older date. Much of this
story, as Mr. Storer has observed, may be mythical,
and many of its circumstances fabulous ; but it
nevertheless seems to prove just as clearly the exist-
ence in very ancient times of the dangerous and
ferocious wild cow, as the popular ballads about
Robin Hood prove the existence of fallow deer in
Sherwood Forest in the time of King John.*

In the Welsh laws of Howell Dha, which date
from about A.D. 940, or before the middle of the
loth century,t we find white cattle with red ears
(that is, resembling in colour the wild cattle of
Chillingham) ordered to be paid in compensation for
offences committed against the Princes of Wales.
It is a question, however, whether the description
indicates a difference of breed, or merely a difference
of colour in individuals of the ordinary breed of
Welsh cattle.

In the forest laws of King Canute (A.D. i o 1 4- 1 03 5) ,
wild cattle are thus referred to : " There are
also a great number of cattle which, although they
live within the limits of the forest, and are subject
to the charge and care of the middle sort of men,

* See also Woods' remarks on this point in his " Description of a
Fossil Skull of an Ox found in Wiltshire," 4to, 1839.

t An English translation of these laws will be found appended to
" The Myvyrian Archaeology of Wales collected out of Ancient Manu-
scripts," ed. Owen Jones and others (Denbigh, 1870), pp. 1014-1062.
Vide cap. ii. § 3.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 221

or Ilegardors, nevertheless cannot at all be reputed
beasts of the forest as Avild horses, bubali, wild cows,
and the like/'* The word bubali, literally " buffaloes,"
is considered to mean " wild bulls," being the sense
in which it is frequently used by Roman authors.

Speaking of a somewhat later period, Matthew
Paris, in his " Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans,"
says of Leofstan, abbot in the time of Edward the
Confessor, that he cut through the thick woods
which extended from the edge of Ciltria (the Chil-
terns) nearly up to London, smoothed the rough
places, built bridges, and levelled the rugged roads,
which he made more safe, "for at that time there
abounded throughout the whole of Ciltria spacious
woods, thick and large, the habitation of numerous
and various beasts, wolves, boars, forest bulls (tauri
sijtvestres), and stags.

Fitz-Stephen, writing about the year 1174, de-
scribes the country beyond London in somewhat
similar terms. " Close at hand," he says, "lies an
immense forest, woody ranges, hiding-places of wild
beasts, of stags, of fallow deer, of boars, and of
forest bulls," and he employs the same term (tauri
sylvestres) to designate the wild cattle to which he
refers, t

Nor was this the only part of the country
in which these animals were at that time to be
found. Knaresborough Forest, for instance, in York-

* See Manwood's "Forest Laws," § 27 ; Thorpe's "Ancient Law*
of England," vol. i. p. 429 ; and Spelman's " Glossary," p. 241.
t " Vita Sancti Thomae," torn. i. p. 173 (ed. Giles).

222 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

shire, about the year 1200, had its " fierce wild
cattle."*

Speed tells usf that Maud de Breos, in order to
appease King John, whom her husband had offended,
sent to his queen a present from Brecknockshire of
four hundred cows and a bull, all white with red ears.
Whether this was the usual colour of the ancient
breed of Welsh and British cattle, or a rare variety,
esteemed on account of its beauty, and chiefly pre-
served in the parks of the nobles, cannot be deter-
mined with certainty. It is, perhaps, more natural
to suppose that they were all domesticated, and not
wild cattle. In later records, however, wild cattle
are particularly referred to by this name. " Six
wylde bulls," are included in the bill of fare on the
occasion of the feast given at the installation of
George Nevill, Archbishop of York, in 1466."!

Hector Boece(Boethius), who was a contemporary of
Leland, and who published his " Scotorum Historise,
a prima Gentis Origine," in 1526, has often been
quoted to prove the former existence of wild white
cattle in Scotland. § His statement is to the effect
that in the great Caledonian wood, which covered a
great tract of country, running through Monteith and
Strathearn, as far as Athole and Lochaber, there were
bulls of the purest white, having manes like lions ;

* Walbran, " Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains"
(Surtees Society, vol. xliii.).

t Speed, "History of Great Britaine," folio, 1611.

J Lelaud, " Collectanea" (ed. Hearne), vi., p. 2.

§ This work was translated into the Scottish vernacular by John
Bellenden, Archdeacon of Moray, in 1 5 5 3, and into English by Eaphael
Holinshed in 1585.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 223

and, though in other respects they much resembled
domestic cattle, they were still so wild and un-
tamable, and so fearful of the approach of man, that
they even fled from any grass, trees, or fruit that
had been touched by him.

This account has been copied, or at least fol-
lowed by Paulus Jovius,* Gesner,t Bishop Leslie,;];
Aldrovandus,§ Jonston,|| and many other writers
much nearer to our own time.

That it was to some extent exaggerated there can
be no doubt ; and it is not surprising that Sir Robert
Sibbald, in his "Scotia Illustrata" (1684), should
have expressed the opinion that it " wanted con-
firmation." Not that the existence of wild cattle in
Scotland was questioned, but only that they pre-
sented the appearance which was ascribed to them
by Boethius.

From causes readily understood, wild cattle held
their ground longer, and continued in a truly wild
state later, in Scotland than in any other part of
Great Britain. As civilization spread from the south,
forests became partly cleared, partly converted into
parks, and waste lands were gradually drained and
cultivated. Wild animals became either exter-
minated, like the wolf and the boar, or, like the
white cattle, were driven further north to their last
strongholds. As the population increased, game

* " Descriptio Britannia, Scotiao, Hiberniae, et Orcadum," 1548.

f " Historia Animalium," 1551.

J "De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum, 1578.

§ " Quadrupedum Omnium Bisulcorum Historia," 1632.

|| "Historia Naturalis de Quadrupedibus, 1657.

224 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

everywhere decreased, except in places where "liberty
to inclose " forest land was granted by the king to
influential nobles or deserving courtiers. Great
tracts of forest were from time to time inclosed
within a pale, haye, or wall, with the game and wild
animals they contained, or with others driven in, and
these inclosures became parks. Thus the land and
all that it contained was secured for ever to the
person having the liberty to inclose, and no one could
thereafter enter or interfere without subjecting him-
self to severe penalties.*

This was the saving of the wild cattle, which,
except for the protection thus afforded them, would,
like the other animals mentioned, have become
extinct centuries ago.

Many such "licenses to inclose " (some of very early
date) are still preserved, and furnish, in not a few
instances, a clue to the history of private herds of
wild white cattle. In enumerating the herds which
are known to us, and concerning which some historical
notices are to be found, it will perhaps be convenient
to take them alphabetically, those which are still
existing being distinguished by an asterisk.

ARDROSSAN CASTLE, AYRSHIRE. — Although of
unknown origin, it is certain that a herd of white
wild cattle, with black ears and muzzles, existed here

* Storer, op. cit. pp. 75, 76. By Stat. Westminster, I. c. 20,
trespassers in parts might be compelled to give treble damages
to the party aggrieved, suffer three years' imprisonment, be fined
at the King's pleasure, and give surety never to offend in the like
kinil again ; and if they could not find surety, they had to abjure the
realm, or, being fugitive, were outlawed.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 225

between the years 1750 (when they were introduced
by Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton) and 1820,
when, on the death of the twelfth earl, Hugh, being
much diminished in numbers, they were sent away
to be killed. Sir John Sinclair, in 1814, referred to
this herd as one of the few remaining representatives
at that time of Caledonia's ancient breed ; and
Robertson, in his " Description of Cunningham and
Ayrshire," published in 1820, has given a good
description of it. He states that the animals in this
herd were pure white, with the muzzle and inside
of the ears black, and that they differed from the
Chillingham cattle in being polled or hornless ;
in this respect resembling the herds at Gisburne,
Middleton, Somerford, Whalley, and Wollaton.
Their number, he adds, was limited, not being allowed
to increase beyond about a dozen ; they were thinned
by shooting, which required some precaution to
accomplish. This account is confirmed by a somewhat
similar notice, given by the Rev. Mr. Bryce, minister
of Ardrossan, in the "New Statistical Account of
Scotland," 1837.

AUCHENCRUIVE, AYRSHIRE. — A little more than
a century ago, when this estate, now the property of
Mr. Oswald, belonged to the Lords Cathcart, a herd
of white wild cattle existed there. In 1763 the
estate changed hands, and a few years afterwards,
within the lifetime of the first Mr. Oswald, who died
in 1 784, the cattle, being found troublesome, were
got rid of.

BARNARD CASTLE, DURHAM, formerly part of the

226 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

chase of Marwood, adjoining the great forest of
Teesdale, belonged successively to the Baliols (after-
wards raised to the Scottish throne), and subsequently
to the Beauchamps and the Nevills, Earls of Warwick.
By the marriage of the daughter and co-heiress of
Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, the King-maker,
in 1471, with Richard Duke of Glo'ster, afterwards
Richard III., it became the property and favourite
residence of that prince until he ascended the throne ;
at his death it reverted to the Crown. There can be
little doubt that during the whole of this period wild
cattle existed and were hunted here, for they still
existed here 150 years later. Charles I, by a grant
dated March 14, 1626, in consideration of a consider-
able sum of money, granted to Samuel Cordwell and
Henry Dingley, in trust for Sir Henry Vane, the
reversion of Barnard Castle, with its parks, " together
with all deer and wild cattle in the said parks. "* It is
believed that wild cattle also existed at one time at
Raby Castle, about six miles distant, the seat of the
Duke of Cleveland.

BISHOP AUCKLAND, DURHAM, originally part of
Weardale Forest, belonged to the Bishops of Durham,
who kept wild cattle here before the Reformation.
Leland describes it as " a faire parke by the castelle,
having fallow deer, wilde bulles, and kin." In 1338
it was let to Sir R. de Maners, from which it may be
inferred, says Raine,f that the deer and wild cattle,

* Hutchinson, " Hist. Durham," vol. iii. p. 245.

t "Historical Account of the Episcopal Palace of Auckland," pp.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 227

not mentioned until afterwards, were then either few
in number or none at all "Wild kyne, with calves
and bulles, &c., of all sortes, remayned in Auckland
Parke, Sept. 24. 1627, the number thirty-two"
(Raine, p. 77).

In 1634 Sir Wm. Brereton, while a guest of Dr.
Moreton, Bishop of Durham, at Bishoppe Auckland,
thus described the cattle he saw : "A daintie stately
parke ; wherein I saw wild bulls and kine which had
two calves and rimers ; there are about twenty wild
beasts all white ; will not endure jor approach, butt
if they be enraged or distressed, very violent and
furious : their calves will bee wondrous fatt."*
These cattle appear to have been all destroyed
during the civil wars of Charles I.'s time. In the
Parliamentary Survey of March 22, 1646-7, this park
is described, and it is said " the deere and game —
viz., fallow-deere and wilde bulls, or bisons — utterly
destroyed, except two or three of the said bisons, and
some few conies, in that part of the park called ' the
Flaggs,' under the said walls of the said castle or
palace." Stainwick Park, also in the county of
Durham, the property of the Duke of Northumber-
land, is believed at one time to have held a herd of
wild white cattle, while there is good reason for sup-
posing that other herds existed at Baby Castle, the

* This description is quoted by Raine in his " Historical Account of
the Episcopal Castle or Palace of Auckland" (p. 79), from a MS. in the
possession of Sir Philip Grey Egerton, entitled " The Second Yeare's
Travell throw Scotland and Ireland, 1635." This MS. has been
printed by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii.
(1839), and also in the first volume of the Cheetham Society's
Publications, 1844.

Q

223 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

principal seat of the Nevills, and at Beaurepaire, the
ancient hunting park of the Priors of Durham. The
cattle at this last-named place, it is said, were all
destroyed by the Scots in 1315.

BLAIR ATHOLE, PERTHSHIRE. — Fifty years ago, in
one of the parks of this ancient seat of the Hurrays,
Dukes of Athole, in the forest of that name, roamed
a herd of wild cattle, white with black points, having-
the ears, muzzles, and hoofs black. In 1834 this
herd was sold, a portion going to Taymouth to the
Marquis of Breadalbane, and the remainder toDalkeith,
to the Duke of Buccleuch. Both these herds are now
extinct, but from them has descended in part the
semi- wild herd which still exists at Kilmory House,
Argyllshire, the property of Sir John Powlett Orde.

BURTON CONSTABLE, YORKSHIRE, an ancient park,
at present containing about 290 acres, is the property
of Sir F. Clifford Constable. At one time it contained
a herd of white cattle, as we learn from Bewick, who
in 1 790 wrote of them as having been then a few
years extinct. " Those at Burton Constable," he
says, " were all destroyed by a distemper a few years
since. They varied slightly from those at Chilling-
ham, having black ears and muzzles, and the tips of
their tails of the same colour. They were also much
larger, many of them weighing sixty stone, probably
owing to the richness of the pasturage in Holderness,
but generally attributed to the difference of kind
between those with black and white red ears, the
former of which they studiously endeavour to preserve.
The origin of this herd has only been surmised.*

* Sec Storer,p. 255.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 229

*CADZOW CASTLE, LANARKSHIRE, the seat of the
Duke of Hamilton, with its park, originally formed
part of the great Caledonian Forest, wherein King
Robert Bruce, according to tradition, hunted the wild
bull in 1320, and where, two centuries later (namely
in 1500), James IV. of Scotland indulged in the same
wild sport. This park lias from time immemorial
contained a herd of wild white cattle, which has been
frequently described, and which still exists.* Sir
Walter Scott has immortalized these cattle in his
ballad of " Cadyow Castle":—

" Mightiest of all the beasts of chase

That roam in woody Caledon,
Crashing the forest in his race,

The mountain bull comes thundering on.

" Fierce, on the hunter's quiver'd hand,
He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow,
Spurns with black hoof and horn the sand.
And tosses high his mane of snow."

He is in error, however, when he states that the
Cadzow cattle were extirpated for their ferocity
about 1769.1 In all probability he derived this im-
pression from a statement to that effect in the " Old
Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. i. p. 180 ; ii. 208.
As compared with those kept at Chillingham, the
animals in this herd differ in having the inside of the
ears black instead of red, and the fore part of the

* One of the best accounts of this herd is that published by Jesse,
•vrho received it from a Mr. Brown, chamberlain to the Duke of
Hamilton.

f "Lay of the Last Minstrel," 8 vo, 1809, notes, p. 40- »M also
Stuart's " Lay of the Deer Forest," vol. ii. p. 225.

Q2

230 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

leg, from the knee downwards, mottled with black.
The cows seldom have horns ; their bodies are thick
and short, their limbs stouter, and their heads rounder
than in the Chillingham breed, with small turn-up
horns. In October, 1874, there were about thirty
animals in this park, including one bull, and in a
field near the park with similar pasturage were
fifteen bulls and steers, along with one old cow and
a young heifer — in all_forty-five head. In June, 1877,
the number had increased to fifty-six.*

* CHARTLEY PARK, STAFFORDSHIRE, nearly i ooo
acres in extent, the property of Earl Ferrers, was
formed by inclosing part of the Forest of Needwood
by charter of Henry III. "About this time (32, 33
Hen. III., that is, 1248-9)," says Sir Oswald Mosley,
" some of the wild cattle of the country which had
hitherto roamed at large in the Forest of Needwood
were driven into the park at this place, where their
breed is still preserved, "t Erdeswick, who began his
" Survey of Staffordshire " about 1593, speaks of it
• as very large, and having therein red-deer, fallow-
deer, wild beasts (i.e., cattle) and swine. In an old
" Account Book of the Steward of the Manor of
Chartley, Prseses, Com. Ferrers," is the following
entry :

" 1658. Pd a moytie of the charge of mowings, makings, and carry-
ing of hay for ye wild beasts — £2 "js. jd."

In this herd, the usual average number of cattle,
which were white with black ears, is said not to have

* A. H. Cocks, The Zoologist, 1878, p. 283.
f "Hist. Tutbury, co. Stafford" (1832).

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 231

exceeded thirty; yet in April, 1851, according to
Mr. E. P. Shirley, there were forty-eight, and in 1873
there were twenty-seven. In July, 1874, Mr. Storer
found only twenty-five— namely, ten breeding cows,
four bulls (two adult), six steers, and five heifers, of
various ages ; the finest old bull and one of the
cows, besides some calves, having died since the
previous autumn. In June, 1877, when Mr. A. H.
Cocks visited this park, as described by him in The

WILD BULL OF C1IARTLEY.

Zoologist (1878, p. 276), the herd, consisting of
twenty animals, was thus constituted : One nine-
year-old bull, one five-year-old bull, one bullock, five
or six young bulls of different ages, two young bull
calves (one called two months old, the other two or
three weeks), the remaining nine or ten being cows
and heifers of various ages.

In appearance the Chartley cattle — independently

232 WILD WHITE CATTLE,

of the different colour of the ears, which are black
instead of red — are very unlike those at Chillingham.*
They are, in fact, "long-horns." Nor are they so
wild as the Northumberland herd. Mr. Storer has
suggested that this is probably owing to the circum-
stance that the park is bounded on one side by a
public road, from which it is only separated by a
paled fence, which is not the case at Chillingham, so
that they are at Chartley much more habituated to
the sight of. man.

* CHILLINGHAM CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, the
seat of the Earl of Tankerville, has been oftener
visited, and oftener written about, than any other
park containing wild cattle, and is, therefore, better
known to the reading public. Of the date of the
inclosure of this park (originally 1 500 acres ; now,
exclusive of woods, about 1 1 oo) no record has been
found ; but there is evidence of its existence in 1 292,t
and " a park with wild animals " is referred to in an
inquisition 42 Edward III., as "of no value beyond
the maintenance of the wild animals." The "great
wood" of Chillingham is referred to in a document of
I22O.J Mr. Darwin seems to have thought that this
referred to the park, since he regards the date above
mentioned as that of its inclosure. § This, however, is
not proved by the document in question. At the
same time it is not at all unlikely that the inclosure

* See Plot, "Nat. Hist. Staffordshire," 1686, pi. 5; and Shaw
"Hist, and Antiq. Stafford," 1798.
t See Tate's " History of Alnwick," vol. i. p. 94.
\ Hindmarsh, "Ann. Nat. Hist.," vol. ii. p. 274.
§ " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 81.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 233

took place about that time (temp. Hen. III.), and
that the cattle were then driven in, just as they were
at Hamilton, Drumlanrig, and Naworth, all of which
herds, together with that at Chillingham, were pro-
bably detachments from the main body of wild

WILD BULL OF C1IILLIXGIIAM.*

cattle which formerly roamed the Caledonian Wood.
Mr. Storer says :

" Whatever may be the age of the park, that, I
imagine, indicates also the time when the wild cattle
were first confined within its boundaries, for no
record of their introduction exists. I suppose that
they, previously wild denizens of the surrounding

* For these two illustrations from Mr. Storer's \vc.rk \v«-
to the courtesy of Messrs. Cassell, Fetter and Galpin. The horns of the
Lymc Park herd are of an intermediate character lift \\fi-n these two.

234

WILD WHITE CATTLE.

forest, were then first incarcerated, as they were at
Chartley and at Lyme."*

It is at least certain that this herd was in existence
two centuries ago. In Mackenzie's " View of the
County of Northumberland" (1825) there is the
following note (vol. i. p. 390) :

" In a family account book, written by William Taylor, steward of
Chillingham, and now (1821) in the possession of his great-grandson,
William Taylor, Esq., Hendon Grange, near Sunderland, is an outlay :

" 1689, Dec. 5, pd "Win. Kadyll's white calf ten shillings.

" May 1692. Beasts in the Parke. My lorde's 16 white wilde beasts,
2 black steers and a guy,f 1 2 white, read and black ear'd, 5 blacke
oxen and brown one, 2 oxen from Warke, from last a steer killed.

" August '92. Ye guy had a calfe, and went to Upwarke with the
twelve black and read-ear'd, two of the Warke, and the brown one at
Chivton."

Many accounts of this herd have been published
from time to time, amongst which we may refer to
those of Pennant, Cully, Bewick, Lord Tanker-
ville, Hindmarsh, and quite recently those of
Mr. A. H. Cocks and the Rev. John Storer, all of
whom have written from personal observation.

The account given by the late Lord Tankerville
(" Ann. Nat. Hist.," vol. ii.) commands perhaps the
chiefest attention, since it comes from a former*

* Chatton, adjoining Chillingham, imparked by Edward I. in 1291-
1 292, contained " wild animals," presumably the same as those at
Chillingham.

t This word, which is variously spelled "quhy," "whye," "why,"
"wye," and "twy," appears to be an abbreviation of "twynters'*
(two winters), and signifies a two-year-old heifer. In the Accounts of
the Bursar of the Monastery of Durham, 1530-1534, commonly called
" The Durham Household Book" (pp. 205, 301, 327), are the following
entries : —

" Et in 2 twynters (whyes) et 2 twynters (whyes) emptis de Wil-

helmo Bernarde @ 9*. . ' 36*..

Et in 4 vaccis, vocatis whyes emptis de Wilhelmo Bernarde, hoc
anno @ gs 36,^

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 235

owner of the herd, who naturally would be expected
to know more about it than any visitor.

In 1692, according to the steward's account, the
herd consisted of only 14 breeding animals, bulls, and
cows, and calves of both sexes, and 1 2 steers ; in
all 28. In 1838, according to Mr. Hindmarsh, there
were about 80, comprising 25 bulls, 40 cows, and
15 steers of various ages. In May, 1861, Mr. Darwin
was informed by the agent, Mr. Hardy, that they
numbered about 50. This was about the number
we saw when visiting the park in May, 1863. In
August, 1873, the herd consisted of 64 head — 1 7 bulls
of all ages from calves upwards, 19 steers, and 28
cows, heifers, and female calves (Storer, p. 171). In
October, 1874, according to Lord Tankerville, the
herd numbered 71. In March, 1875, the number had
again decreased, amounting to 62 only — viz., 14 bulls
and bull calves, 3 1 cows and cow calves, and 1 7 steers.
In July, 1 877, there were still fewer — 59 only— con-
sisting of 8 bulls, 2 7 cows and heifers, and 1 6 steers
(Zoologist, 1878, p. 281). Lord Tankerville says
they increase slowly, several dying each year by
accidents or by overrunning their calves when dis-
turbed ; and the cows breed slowly, owing to having
frequently the calves still sucking the second year."

Bewick's assertion that a few of the Chillingham
cattle in his day had black ears is confirmed from other
sources. In 1 692 there were more with black ears than
with red ears, and the present prevalence of red ears
seems to have been brought about by selection.

DRUMLANRIG CASTLE, DUMFRIESSHIRE. — Until the

236 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

close of the last century there was a herd of white
wild cattle here, the property of the Duke of Queens-
berry. Its origin is unknown, but it appears to have
been of some antiquity. Pennant (who went to see
these cattle) and Bewick, who has noticed them,
describe them as white with black ears. According
to Mr. Hindmarsh, who derived his information from
the clergyman of the place, " they were driven away
about 1780 " by the fourth and last Duke of Queens-
berry. Other writers besides those named have
identified the animals in this herd with " the wild
Caledonian cattle."

EWELME PARK, OXFORDSHIRE, formerly belonging
to the De la Poles, Dukes of Suffolk, once contained
a herd of wild cattle. In 1536 Edward Ashfield was
appointed by Henry VIII. "keeper of the Park of
Ewelme and master of the wild leasts there. In
1 606 Lord William Knollys was keeper of the park
and master of the wild beasts in the same" for
James I. That the term of "wild beasts " referred
to wild cattle, and not to any of the other wild
animals which James I. delighteth to keep, is shown
by a reference to the hay which was provided for
them, which occurs in the conveyance of the park by
Charles I. to Sir Christopher Nevil and Sir Edmund
Sawyer in 1627.*

GISBURNE PARK, YORKSHIRE, the seat of Lord
Bibblesdale, is situated in the district of Craven, in
the West Hiding. It once formed part of Gisburne

* Napier's "Historical Notices of Swyncombe and Ewelme,'' 1838,
pp. 204, 207, 212, 217 ; Shirley, " English Deer Parks," p. 137.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 237

Forest, while the still more extensive forests of
Bowland and Blackburnshire were closely contiguous.
80 far as can now be ascertained, it appears tolerably
certain that this herd, seldom numbering more than
eight or ten head, was once part of the herd atWhalley
Abbey, the property of the Asshetons, and that
in 1697, on the death of Sir John Assheton, the last
baronet of Whalley Abbey, part of the herd there
went to Gisburne, to the Listers (afterwards Lords
liibblesdale),* with whom the Asshetons were con-
nected by marriage : and the other part was added to
the previously existing herd at Middleton Park,
belonging to his heirs, the Asshetons, baronets of
Middleton. In 1790 Bewick wrote: — At " Gisburne
there are some perfectly white, except the inside of
the ears, which are brown. They are without horns,
very strong boned, but not high. They are said to
have been originally brought from Whalley Abbey,
in Lancashire, upon its dissolution in the twenty-
third year of Henry VIII., and to have been drawn
to Gisburne by the power of music" — in the same way
that a herd of about twenty Red- deer is said to have
been brought out of Yorkshire to Hampton Court.t

A few years later, Di». Whitaker, in his " History
and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven," published
in 1 8 1 2, gave the following account of them, with
portraits of a bull and cow (pis. 8 and 9, p. 37) and
a view of the park (pi. 10).

* The grandson of Thomas Lister (to whom Sir John Asheton had
bequeathed Gisburne and part of the Whalley herd) and Catherine
Asheton of Middleton, was created Baron Ribblesdale in 1797.

t Playford's " Brief Introduction to the Skill of Music," 1655.

238 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

" Gisburne Park is chiefly remarkable for a herd of
wild cattle, descendants of that indigenous race
which once peopled the great forests of Lancashire.
After their extinction in a wild state — which we
know did not take place till a short time before the
age of Leland — it is highly probable that the breed
was kept up by the Abbots of Whalley in the ' Lords
Park/ and fell into the hands of the Asshetons, who
acquired possession of that rich domain after the
Dissolution. This species differs from those of Lyme
in Cheshire, and Chillingham Castle in Northumber-
land— where alone in South Britain they are now
preserved — in being without horns.

" They are white, save the tips of their noses, which
are black ;* rather mischievous, especially when guard-
ing their young, and approach the object of their
resentment in a very insidious manner. They breed
with tame cattle ;f but it is to be hoped that respect
for so ancient and singular a family will induce the
noble owner to preserve them from any foreign
admixtures. "

They became extinct in 1859, having become so
delicate from breeding in-and-in, that their owners
could no longer keep them. They had become quite
tame, and were housed in winter. The last cow and
calf were sold to Mr. Legh, of Lyme Park, in October,

* A copy of the "History of Craven" in the library at Gisburne Park
has the following note opposite the statement that the noses were
black, in the handwriting of the first Lord Eibblesdale : " the ears
and noses of this species of cattle are never black, but most usually
red or brown."

t This attempt to cross the breed failed, as did a similar attempt
which was made by bringing a heifer from Lyme to Gisburne.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 239

1859, and on the loth of November in that year the
bull, the last of his race, was killed.

HOGHTON TOWER, LANCASHIRE, the park whereof
once formed part of the forest of Bowland, had a very
ancient herd of wild cattle, which has been extinct
probably about two hundred years.

HOLDENBY PARK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, was
licensed to be imparked in 1578, and was much en-
larged when James I. purchased the estate of Sir
Christopher Hatton in 1607 (Pell Records, p. 80).
During the Civil War Holdenby was seized, and
granted by the Parliament to Thomas Lord Grey of
Groby, who sold it to Adam Baynes, of Kiiowsthorp,
Yorkshire, who in 1650 destroyed the park and pulled
down the mansion. At the time of the sale, the
park of 500 acres was stocked with upwards of
two hundred deer of different kinds, worth £200,
and eleven cows, and calves of wild cattle, worth
£4.2.* Mr. Storer thinks they were introduced by
James I.

* KILMORY HOUSE, ARGYLLSHIRE. See BLAIR
ATHOLE, whence this herd was derived.

LEIGH COURT, SOMERSETSHIRE. — This park, which
once contained a herd of wild cattle, formerly belonged
to the Augustinian Canons of Bristol, and was
beautifully wooded. It is now the property of Sir
William Miles, Bart, whose father in 1 808 purchased
it from the heirs of Lady Norton. Two years pre-
viously-—^., in 1806 — the wild cattle there had
become so savage that the owner was obliged to have

* Baker, " History of Northamptonshire," vol. i. p. 197.

24o WILD WHITE CATTLE.

them shot/" There is no clue to their origin, and
this is the only instance yet known of a wild herd in
the west of England.

*LYME PARK, CHESHIRE, was originally part of the
Forest of Macclesfield, and was granted by Richard
II. toward the close of the fourteenth century to Sir
Piers Legh, who was standard-bearer to the Black
Prince at the Battle of Cresci. It has ever since
remained in the family of Legh, and the breed of
cattle still preserved there is thought to be at least
as ancient as the park itself. Hansall, in his " His-
tory of Cheshire" (1817), says :

" In Lyme Park, which contains about one thousand
Cheshire acres, is a herd of upwards of twenty wild
cattle, similar to those in Lord Tankerville's park at
Chillingham — chiefly white with red ears. They
have been in the park from time immemorial, and
tradition says they are indigenous. In the summer
season they assemble in the high lands, and in the
winter they shelter in the park woods. They were
formerly fed with holly branches, with which trees the
park abounded ; but these being destroyed, hay is
now substituted. Two of the cows are shot annually
for beef."

Thirty years ago this herd, it is said, numbered as
many as thirty-four head. Then it gradually
dwindled until in August, 1875, when Mr. Storer
visited Lyme, there were only four animals surviving
— a three-year-old bull, a cow, a three-year-old heifer
in calf, and a young calf. In two years' time there

* Shirley, " English Deer Parks," p. 99.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 24 r

was a slight increase, for in June, 1877, Mr. A. H.
Cocks found two bulls, two cows, and two heifers,
although one of the cows unfortunately was parti-
coloured.

The loss of two cows during the present owner's
time, and impairment of the fertility of others by
the foot-and-mouth disease, as well as the reten-
tion at one time of a single bull which proved in-
fertile, are the chief causes which have led to the
threatened extinction of the herd, added to which
Mr. Legh attributes its present diminished numbers
to long-continued in-and-in breeding from near
affinities.

Although in habits the old Lyme cattle resembled
those at Chillingham, they were larger than any
breed of cattle now existing in this country — higher
on the leg, more upstanding, and longer in the body
— very large cattle, with strong bone, much substance,
and a large amount of flesh about the neck and dew-
lap. They had abundance of long rough hair, which,
in the males was very fully developed, curly and
mane-like on the head and fore- quarters, and the
hide was of immense thickness. They were very
grand and symmetrical in appearance, and their
movements were distinguished by a peculiar majestic
stateliness. Their flesh was excellent, but there does
not seem to have been any record kept of their
weights. For a great many years, indeed, none but
cows were ever slaughtered, and latterly not even
these. The colour of the ears is subject to variation,
and, although generally red, it is sometimes black or

242 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

blue approaching to black. The horns are of an
intermediate character between those of the Chilling-
ham and Chartley breeds.

MIDDLETON PARK, LANCASHIRE, the ancient seat
of the Asshetons, was originally part of the great
forest of Bowland, whence possibly the ancestors of
the herd of white cattle which existed here were
driven in on the inclosure of the park. At Blakeley
(about a mile from Middleton Hall), says Leland,
" wild bores, bulles, and falcons bredde in times
paste."* Tradition, however, affirms that the Middle-
ton herd originally came from Whalley Abbey, and
the family connection which existed between the
Asshetons of Middleton, the Asshetons of Whalley,
and the Listers of Gisburne renders it, in the words
of Mr. Assheton, " highly probable that had either
family by any means acquired the wild cattle, they
were very likely to have spread from them to
the others." The cattle in this herd were white
and polled ; some had black, others brown ears.
Dr. Leigh, in his " Natural History of Lancashire,
Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire" (book ii. p. 3),
published in 1700, thus alludes to them : " In a park
near Bury in Lancashire are wild cattel belonging to
Sir Ralph Ashton, of Middleton ; these, I presume,
were first brought from the Highlands of Scotland [a
mere surmise, probably founded on his acquaintance
with the accounts given by Boethius and Leslie of the
Caledonian bull]. They have no horns, but are like the
wild bulls and cows upon the continent of America :"

* Leland, " Itiu.," vol. vii. p. 47 (ed. Hearne).

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 243

from which we may infer that in Dr. Leigh's
day the bulls showed some indication of a mane.
The descendants of this herd are not yet entirely
extinct, although they have become quite domesti-
cated ; for, on the death of the third baronet in 1 765,
when the baronetcy became extinct, the elder of his
two daughters, co-heiresses, married Sir Harbord Har-
bord (afterwards, in 1780, created first Lord Surfield),
and inherited Middleton and the wild cattle, which
were then removed to Gunton Park, Lord Suffield's
place in Norfolk. Here they were preserved for
many years, but gradually declined, until on the
death of the fourth Lord Suffield, in 1853, they ceased
to exist there. In the meantime, however, some had
been transferred to Blickling Hall, originally the
property of the Hobarts, created Earls of Bucking-
hamshire in 1 746, and eventually inherited by the
Hon. William Assheton Harbord (eldest son of the
first Lord Suffield) on his marriage with one of the
three daughters of the second Earl of Buckingham-
shire, who died in 1 793 without male issue. Others
were sold about 1 840 to Mr. Cator, of Woodbastwick
Hall, near Norwich, but, being subsequently crossed
with shorthorns, the character and colour of the sur-
vivors have become much altered, although, as
remarked by the Eev. Mr. Gilbert, who visited this
herd in November, 1875, "there is a perpetual
struggle at Woodbastwick to reproduce the original
type : and this proves how much more firmly fixed is
this in the blood than is that of any of the recently
introduced crosses."

244 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

NAWORTH CASTLE, CUMBERLAND.— It appears
from the "Household Book" of Lord William Howard,
of Naworth, commenced in 1612, that wild cattle
were introduced into this park in 1629, from Martin-
dale Forest, in the neighbourhood of Thornthwaite,
where at that time probably they roamed in a state
of nature.* The entry is as follows :

1629. Januari 9. To Anthonie Bearper George Bell & William
Halle for their charges and paines in bringinge wilde cattell from
Thornthwate — vs. iiijd.

The date of their introduction at Naworth is thus
approximately fixed. t

The " hirde of the forest " at this time was Richard
Fisher, whose wages were £8 a year, paid half-yearly
in May and November. When any of the wrild
cattle here were killed, the skins were sold with those
of other oxen, but apparently did not fetch so much.
Thus (at p. 284) we find the entry :

1633. June 22. Rec. for 2 kine skinns — xiijs.

Rec. more of him [i.e. the purchaser, Wm, Buckle] for one wild kowe
skine — iiijs.

The calves were sometimes killed for the table, and
being considered a delicacy, were sent as presents like
game and wildfowl. Thus (at p. 318) an entry runs :

1633. Aug. 23. To Mr. Thomas Howarde's manne bringinge one
quarter of a -wilde calfe to my Ladie— vs.

The cattle in this park, however, did not remain
there many years. In 1675 it appears they had

* This " Household Book," edited by the Eev. George Ornsby for
the Surtees Society, seems to have escaped the notice of Mr. Storer.

t The park at ISTaworth was then enclosed by a wall, as we gather
from entries of payments for repairing it (e.g. p. 320).

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 245

ceased to exist, having been destroyed probably
during the Parliamentary wars.

In a MS. and anonymous "Description of Cumber-
land," dated 1675, and said to have been written by
Edmund Sandford, a gentleman of good family in the
county, the writer, describing Naworth Castle and
the neighbourhood, says that around it formerly were
" pleasant woods and gardens ; ground full of fallow
dear feeding on all somer tyme ; braue venison pasties,
and great store of reed dear on the mountains, and
white wild cattel with black ears only, on the moores; and
black heath-cockes and brone more-cockes, and their
pootes."*

*SOMERFORD PARK, CHESHIRE, the property of Sir
Charles Shakerley, is situate near Congleton, in the
heart of what was once Maxwell Forest, t An ancient
herd of white cattle, resembling those at Chartley,
but polled, still exists here ; and these animals are
considered to be the best surviving representatives
of the hornless and tame variety of the original wild
white breed. The colour is pure white ; the ears,
rims of the eyes, muzzle, and hoofs being quite black.
Like all other old herds of the forest breed, they have
a strong tendency to produce small black spots on
the neck, sides, and legs, and this the proprietors
admire and encourage ; many of them have therefore
become more or less speckled. When Mr. Storer
visited this herd in August, 1 875, it numbered twenty
head. It is to be regretted that no record or even

* Jefferson, " Hist, and Antiq. Carlisle" (1838), p. 361.
t Leland, " Itinerary," vol. v. p. 87 (ed. Hearne).

R 2

246 WILD WHITE CATTLE.

tradition with regard to the origin of this herd exists ;
for its appearance, according to Mr. Storer, bespeaks
great antiquity. In answer to inquiries on the
subject, the present owner, Sir Charles Shakerley,
replied : " We have no history of how they came, or
how long they have been here. I am of the third
generation which has known nothing about them.
The tradition is, they have been here two hundred
years. " It is quite possible that, like those at Lyine
and Chartley, they may have been originally wild in
the adjacent forest, and were driven in to the park
when it was first inclosed. On the other hand, being
of the same race as those at Middleton, they may
have come originally from Shakerley, only a few
miles distant from Middleton and Blakeley.

WHALLEY ABBEY, LANCASHIRE, had a park
attached, which was originally part of the Forest of
Bowland (granted by Edward VI. to a branch of the
family of Assheton), and until 1697 contained a herd
of white wild cattle, which were polled. Some of
these, according to tradition, were in that year sent
to Gisburne Park, as above mentioned, where they
existed until 1859 ; the remainder being transferred
to Middleton Hall, where, after the death of the
fourth Lord of Sheffield in 1853, they were no longer
preserved.

WOLLATON PARK, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, belonging to
the family of Willoughby, Baron Middleton, was
formerly part of Sherwood Forest, and held white
cattle until about fifty years ago.* In 1790 Bewick

* See Thoroton, " Antiquities of Nottinghamshire," 1677, pi. 7, and
Throsby's edition of this work, 1790, vol. ii. p. 214, pi. 27.

WILD WHITE CATTLE. 247

mentioned this herd as one of the five " only breeds
now remaining in the kingdom." They were all
white, with black noses and black ears, and had a
fine circlet of black round the eyes. They were
polled, or hornless, arid were known as the " old park
breed," a name denoting some antiquity. Their origin
can now only be surmised.^ They became extinct in
the time of Henry, sixth Lord Middleton — that is,
between 1800 and 1835 — when, fourteen of them
having died at one time from eating dead branches
cut from trees near the hall, and the herd having
thus become so reduced by the accident, and the
survivors showing no tendency to breed, they were
ordered to be sold and slaughtered.

Of all these herds, there are now existing only
those at Cadzow (Hamilton), Chartley, Chillingham,
Kilmory, Lyme, and Somerford.

In Ireland no trace of these wild cattle has yet
been discovered, although remains of the smaller
Bos longifrons have been procured from many Irish
localities, t

* Storer, pp. 274, 275.

t See Ball, "Proc. Koy. Irish Acad.," vol. ii. p. 541 ; Wilde, op. cit.,
vii. p. 183. Adams, op. cit. (second series), vol. iii. p. 90; Scouler,
" Journ. Geol. Soc.," Dublin, vol. i. p. 228 ; Owen, "British Fossil Mam
mals," p. 508; and Thompson, "Nat. Hist. Ireland," vol. iv. p. 35.

INDEX.

ACCIDENTS at Bear-baiting, 26, 31

Advertisements of Bear-baiting, 30

Alfric, Colloquy of, 79

Ambrose, " Roast Wolf," 152

Annales Cariibrice, 137

Antlers of Eeindeer, 71, 75

Asser's " Life of Alfred the Great," 122

Aubrey, " Natural History of Wiltshire," 94, 95

BEAR, remains of, 1 1
„ in Manea Fen, 12
„ at St. Bride's Bay, 12
„ in Kent's Cavern, 1 2
„ in the Victoria Cave, 12
„ at Colchester, 13 .
„ at Richmond, Yorkshire, 13
„ in Dumfriesshire, 13
„ in Ireland, 13-16
„ in Wales, 17

a beast of chase, 1 7

its flesh esteemed, 17

mode of hunting, 18

in Saxon times, 19, 20

with the Romans, 21

transported from Britaiu to Rome, 2 1, 22
Bears, Caledonian, 21

„ traditions of, in the Highlands, 23
„ „ in Ireland, 23

„ date of extinction in Britain, 24
Bear-baiting, 25

„ accidents at, 26, 31

„ advertisements of, 30

„ garden, 32
Bear-wards, 28

250 INDEX.

Bears, Chief Master of the, 27

„ of the Earl of Northumberland, 28
„ of the Prior of Durham, 28.
Beaver, 33

„ in Wales, 34

„ Welsh name for, 37

„ mentioned in Welsh laws, 33

„ „ by Giraldus Cambrensis, 35

„ „ by Harrison, 35-36

„ „ by Drayton, 36

„ „ by Camden, 36

by Sir E. C. Hoare, 36

„ „ by Owen in Welsh Dictionary, 37

„ „ by Sir John Price, 38

„ „ by Humphrey Llwyd, 38

Beavers in Scotland, 40

„ mentioned by Boethius, 40

„ „ Bellenden, 40

Sir E. Sibbald, 40
Beaver, Gaelic name for, 41

„ discovery of remains of, 42

„ in Perthshire, 42

„ in Berwickshire, 42

„ in Eoxburghshire, 42

„ in Norfolk, 42

„ in Suffolk, 42

„ in Berkshire, 42

„ in Kent, 42

„ in Cambridgeshire, 43

„ in Hampshire, 45

„ in Lincolnshire, 45

„ in Devonshire, 45

„ in Isle of Bute, 46-59
Beaver skin, value of, 34
Beverley, derivation of name, 46
Beverege, 46
Bevere Island, 46
Beverburn, 46
Bevercotes, 46
Beverstone, 46
Beversbrook, 46
Bedd-gelert, story of, 140
Belle Sauvage, the, 26
Berners, Dame Juliana, 1 50
Bernwood, Forest of, 80
Boar, Wild, see Wild Boar
Boar's chase, the, 90

INDEX. 25!

Boar-frank, 96

Boar's head, custom of bringing in, 1 1 1
„ in Eastcheap, in, 112
„ in Southwark, 114
Boar-hunt, in Eskdale, 83
Boar-spears, 84, 85, 114
Boar, the, of Borestall, 81
Bolton Priory, accounts of, 144
Book of St. Albans, 150

„ of Howth, 187

„ of Information, 191

„ of B,ights of the Kings of Eriu, 93
Boyd Dawkins, Prof. W., on remains of Bear, 12

„ „ „ Eeindeer, 62, 74; on Wolf, 118

Bos primigenius, skull of, 216, 217
Bowland Forest, 7, 8, 119, 155
Brochs, or ancient circular forts, 70
Burial Places, insular, as protection from Wolves, 182
Browne, Sir Thomas, on errors concerning Wolves, 204

CAITJS, deCanibus, 131

Caledonian Forest, 9, 21, 160

Campbell of Glen Urcha, 172

Canes Scotici, 22

Cannock Chace, 6

Canute, forest laws of, 132, 220

Carmen de Bella Hastingensi, 133

Carte, Dr., on Irish Fossil Mammals, 14, 66

Cattle, Wild, 213

„ „ British, 219

„ „ in Anglo-Saxon times, 219,

„ „ Welsh laws affecting, 220

„ „ forest laws of Canute, 220

„ „ in Scotland, 222, 223

,, ,, herds of, in parks, 224-245

„ ,, at Ardrossan, Ayrshire, 224

,, ,, Auchencruive, Ayrshire, 225

„ „ Bamard Castle, Durham, 225

„ ,, Bishop Auckland, Durham, 226

„ „ Blair Athole, Perthshire, 228

„ „ Burton Constable, Yorkshire, 228

„ „ Cadzow Castle, Lanarkshire, 229

„ „ Chartley Park, Staffordshire, 230

„ „ Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, 232

„ „ Drumlaurig Castle, Dumfriesshire, 235

„ „ Ewelme Park, Oxfordshire, 236

„ „ Gisburne Park, Yorkshire, 236

252 INDEX.

Cattle, Wild, at Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, 239
„ „ Holdenby Park, Northamptonshire, 239
„ „ Kilmory House, Argyleshire, 239
„ ., Leigh Court, Somersetshire, 239
„ „ Lyme Park, Cheshire, 240
„ „ Middleton Park, Lancashire, 242
„ ,, Naworth Castle, Cumberland, 244

„ Somerford Park, Cheshire, 245
„ „ Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, 246
„ „ Wollaton Park, Nottinghamshire, 246

Charnwood Forest, 6

Chief Master of the Bears, 27

Chisholm's, the Laird of, adventure with Wolf, 173

Coins, ancient British, 77, 219

Corbet, Peter, Wolf -hunter to Edward I., 143

Cosmo, Grand Duke, travels in England, 1669, 197

Craven Forest, 8

Cumberland, Moors and Forests, 4, 8

Cunobelin, coin of, 219

DERBYSHIRE Moons, 4
Drayton's " Polyolbion," 36, 142

ELDAK, JOHN, story of, 165

Erdeswick's " Survey of Staffordshire," 1593, 86, 97

Ettrick Forest, 161

Evans's " British Coins," 77

FITZSTEPHEN'S Description of London, 1174, 5, 84
Flower, Prof. W. H., on cranium of Dog, 117
Forest of Bere, 119, 136, 137

„ of Bowland and Blackburnshire, 7,119

„ of Irwell, 119

„ near London in 1174, 5, 84

„ of Marr, 76, 95

„ of the Peak, 7, 145

„ of Riddlesdale, 119

„ of Savernake, 101, 119, 153

„ of Wolmer, 95
Forests, former extent of ancient, 4-9

GIBALDUS CAMBRENSIS, Itinerary of, 35, 93, 186
Gordon, story of a Gordon and a Boar, 24, 91
Great Grimsby, Seal of the Corporation of, 87

HAYE, or Haia, 10
Hentzner's Itinerary, 29

INDEX.

Highland Deer Forests, 4
Horns of Reindeer, 71, 75

„ of Wild Cattle, 216, 217, 231, 233
Horn, Hunting-, 10, 149, 205

„ Nigell'e, 81

Household Book of, Earl Ferrers, 102
„ „ Bolton Priory, 144

„ Whitby Abbey, 148
„ „ Earl of Northumberland, 28

„ „ Squire Kitson, 28, 85, 86

„ „ Monastery of Durham, 28, loo, 101

„ Earl of Hertford, lot
„ „ Elizabeth of York, 85

Howel Dha, laws of, 33, 80, 125, 128, 220
Howell's "Familiar Letters," 194
Hunting in ancient times, 10
„ the Bear, 18
„ „ Beaver, 34
„ „ Eeindeer, 72-74
„ „ Wild Boar, 79
„ „ Wolf, 151, 159, 161

IXGLEWOOD FOREST, 82

Isle of Bute, Beavers in, 46-59

Ireland, earliest account of wild animals in, 93

,, Bear in, 13-16, 23

„ Reindeer in, 65-66

„ Wild Boar in, 92-94

„ Wolf in, 185

JOHN, Charter of Liberties of, 138

LANCASHIRE MOORS, 4

Lauder, Sir T. D., account of Moray Floods, 180

Leith Adams, on Irish Fossil Mammals, 14, 65, 67

Liulphus, a celebrated Wolf-hunter, 133, 154

Llwyd on Welsh MSS., 17

Lyon, Lady Margaret, and the Wolves, 162

MACCLESFIELD FOREST, 7
Macpherson of Braekaely, 171
MacQueen of Pall-a-chrocain, 178
Marr, Forest of, 76, 95
Matthew Paris, 133
Maxwell Forest, 6
Memprys, killed by a Wolf, 121

253

254

INDEX.

NEEDWOOD FOREST, 5, 6

Newbury, the Peat-pit near, 89

New Forest, 119

Newton, Prof. A., on Zoology of Ancient Europe, 151

Nigell and the Wild Boar, 81

Nigell's horn, 81

Northumberland Moors, 4

O'FLAHERTY'S West or H'lar Connaught, 197

Orkney, Jarls of, hunting Reindeer, 72-74

" Orkneyinga Saga," 72-74

Owen, Prof., on Fossil Mammals, 12, 65, 1 17, 215, 218

PARIS Garden, 26

"Paw-calf," the, 23, 24

Peak, Forest of the, 7, 145

Peat-pit near Newbury, 89

Pennarth, 17

" Penitentiale" of Abp. Egbert, 19, 124

Pennyles Pilgrimage, 168

Peter Corbet, Wolf-hunter to Edward I., 143

Poison of Wester Helmsdale, 176

" Polychronicon" of Ranulphus Higden, 186

"Polyolbion" of Michael Drayton, 36, 130

QUEEN ANNE, advertisements of Bear-baiting, 30
„ Elizabeth bear-baiting, 27
„ Mary Wolf -hunting, 166

RAY, " Synopsis Methodica Animalium," 17
Reindeer, 61

„ remains in post-glacial deposits, 62

„ at Brentford, 62

„ Kew Bridge, 62

„ Windsor, 62

„ Oxford, 64

„ Bedford, 64

„ Rugby, 64

,, Salisbury, 64

„ Sittingbourne, 64

,, Maidstone, 64
Bath, 64

„ East Dereham, 65

„ Cambridge, 65

„ Erith, 65
Chester, 65

„ in Lancashire, 65

INDEX. 255

Reindeer in Ireland, 65

„ at Waterford, 66

„ Limerick, 66
Clare, 66

„ Dublin, 66

„ horns, character of, 66- 67

„ „ figxu-ed, 71, 75

„ in Scotland, 67

„ Eosshire, 67, 70

„ Sutherland, 68

„ Caithness, 67, 70, 71

„ Linlithgowshire, 68
Perthshire, 68

„ Dumbartonshire, 69

„ Ayrshire, 69
Orkney, 72-74

„ hunted in Caithness in I2th century, 72-74

„ reintroduced, 76

„ in Northumberland, 76

„ in Aberdeenshire, 76

„ in Orkney, 76

.Rewards for slaying Wolves, 137, 145, 159, 162, 164, 169, 196
Richmond Forest, 119
Roman monuments in England, 78
Rosendale Forest, 8, 1 54

SALVIN, F. H., his tame Wild Boar, no

Savernake Forest, 101, 119, 153

Scotch Forests, 164

Sherwood Forest, 7, 119

Sibbald's " Scotia Illustrata," 40, 169

Skins of Wild Animals, value of, A.D. 940, 34

Skins used for trimming, 34, 1 57

Smith, "Ancient and Present State of Co. Kerry," 199

Smith, Dr. J. A., on remains of Bear, 13

„ on remains of Reindeer, 69, 71

,, on ancient Cattle of Scotland, 215

Staffordshire Moors and Forests, 5

Sussex, last Wolf in, 154

" Swin," names of places compounded with, 89

TAYLOR'S " Pennyles Pilgrimage," 158, 168
Tennent, Sir J. E., on Wolves in Ireland, 202
Torfaeus, account of the Orkneys, 72
Tract, earliest relating to fauna of Ireland, 93
Turbervile on Boar-hunting, 102-108
„ on Wolf-hunting, 190

256 INDEX.

Tusks, enormous, of Wild Boar, 90, 91
„ of large size from Ireland, 94

WALKER'S "Mammalia Scotica," 131
Wangford, Beavers at, 59
Welsh, historians, notice of Beavers by, 38
„ laws of Howel Dha, 33, 80, 125, 128, 220
„ Triads, 16

West or H'lar Connaught, 197
Westmoreland Moors, 4

White, Gilbert, on Wild Boars in Wolmer Forest, 95.
Wild Boar, 77

„ its early mention in history, 77

„ figured on British coins, 77

„ in Celtic works of art, 77

„ on Roman monuments, 78
at Eibchester, 78

„ in Weardale, 78

„ at Birdoswald, 78

„ at Little Langford, 79

„ in Saxon times, 79

,. period for hunting, 80

„ in Forest of Bernwood, 80-8 1

„ in Inglewood Forest, 82

„ in Eskdale, 82, 83

„ anecdote of a, 83

„ near London, 84

„ in Oxfordshire, 84

„ mode of spearing, 85, 114
in Suffolk, 85

„ in Staffordshire, 86

„ in Northumberland, 86

,, in Westmoreland, 86

„ in Berkshire, 87, 89

„ in Hampshire, 87

„ in Lancashire, 87

„ in Lincolnshire, 87

„ names and places, 89

„ St. Andrews, 89, 90

„ huge tusks of, 90, 91

„ Gaelic names of, 92

„ in Perthshire, 92

„ in Berwickshire, 92

„ in Ireland, 92, 93

„ Irish names for, 94

„ attempted reintroduction of, 94

„ in the New Forest, 94

INDEX. 257

Wild Boar, in Essex, 95, 96

„ in Wolmer Forest, 95

„ in the Forest of Marr, 95

„ in Dorsetshire, 95, 96

„ in Staffordshire, 97

„ in Derbyshire, 97, 98

„ date of extinction of, 100

„ in Durham, 100

„ in Savernalce Forest, 101

,, in Lancashire, 101

„ at Windsor, 102

„ in Westmoreland, 102

„ mode of hunting, 102-108

„ names for, at different ages, 108

„ a tame one, 1 10
Wild Cattle, see Cattle, Wild
Wolf, 115

„ formerly common in Britain, 116

„ geological evidence, 117

., districts formerly infested, 118, 119

„ skull of, 117, 120, 121

„ hunted by the Britons, 121

„ „ by the Saxons, 122

„ mentioned in the " Penitentiale" of Abp. Egbert, 124

„ retreat at Flixton, 125

„ tribute imposed by Edgar, 125-132

Edgar's house, near Glastonbury, 132

Forest laws concerning, 132

on English battle-fields, 133, 134

in Northumberland, 134, 149

in Eichmondshire, 135, 147, 152

in the New Forest, 1 36

in the Forest of Bere, 136-137

in the Forest of Bowland, 119, 155 •

in Caernarvonshire, 137

in Devonshire, 138

in Northamptonshire, 139, 141, 142, 144

in Surrey, 139

story of Bedd-gelert, 140

in Leicestershire, 142

in Hampshire, 142

in Gloucestershire, 143

in Worcestershire, 143

in Herefordshire, 143

in Shropshire, 143

in Staffordshire, 143

in Huntingdonshire, 144, 148

258 INDEX.

Wolf, in Cambridgeshire, 144
„ in Buckinghamshire, 144, 148
„ in Eutlandshire, 144, 148
„ in Yorkshire, 144, 145, 155, 156
„ in Derbyshire, 145, 146
„ in Wiltshire, 146, 153
„ in Nottinghamshire, 147, 149
„ in Oxfordshire, 148
„ in Essex, 143, 148
„ in Lancashire, 154, 155
„ names and places, 1 54
„ in Scotland, 158
„ in the Caledonian Forest, 1 60
„ in the Ettrick Forest, 161
„ statutes for destruction of, 161
„ in Mount Caplach, 163
„ in Scotch forests, 164-168
„ Gaelic names for, 171

„ rewards for slaying, 137, 145, 159, 162, 164, 169, 196
„ traditions concerning, 170-183
Wolf-hall, Savernake, 101, 153
Wolf's-head, signification of, 124
Wolf -hounds, 188

„ sent as presents, 189, 190

„ prohibition against exporting, 195

Wolf -hunt lands, 145-149
Wolf-skins, temp. Charles II., 169
Wolf-stone, the, 157
Wolves in Ireland, 185
„ in Ulster, 193, 194
„ in Munster, 192-199
„ in Connaught, 197
„ near Dublin, 193
„ in Cork, 198
„ in Kerry, 199

„ proposed Act for destruction of, in Ireland, 193, 197
„ names and places, 183, 184
„ date of extinction, 204

VERSTEGAN'S, "Restitution of decayed intelligence," 123, 124
YORKSHIRE MOORS, 4

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